Iverson met with Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley, who granted Iverson permission to leave. Heisley met with Iverson again on Saturday.

It has been an action-packed 2 1/2 weeks to open the season with Iverson. He missed all of the preseason with a partially torn hamstring, opened the season still recovering and then played in the next three games of the current five-game West Coast road trip before missing Saturday's game against the Clippers.

Though he has averaged 12.3 points, 3.7 assists, 2.3 turnovers and 57 percent shooting in 22 minutes per game for the Grizzlies, Iverson earned headlines for complaining about a lack of playing time.

After Friday's loss to the Lakers, Iverson tried to downplay any controversy.

"The Allen Iverson people that love Allen Iverson take it one way, and the anti-Allen Iverson people take it another way," Iverson said. "It's a big debate about something that doesn't mean anything."

And he says he's not confused about how to contribute to the Grizzlies.

"I'm not trying to figure out how to contribute to no team," Iverson said. "I contribute to a team by just playing. That's it. I don't have to figure it out. Obviously, they signed me for a reason. They've been watching me play this game for 13 years, and they know what I do on the basketball court, so I don't have to figure out how I'm going to play or anything like that. I just go out and play basketball."

The veteran guard didn't ask to be traded or waived.

"I'm not going to get into the personal reason, but it has nothing to do with the other stuff," Heisley said. "I'm the guy who said he could go. It's a real family issue that I don't think should be reported.

"I told him to take as much time as he needed. This has nothing to do with Lionel or anything else. He's upset about what's going on with him personally. It's one of those things he feels has him on edge.

"There's no question that when he comes back we have to work some things out. He's got a lot of work to do, but we've all got to get on the same page."

CLIPPERS 113, GRIZZLIES 110: The Grizzlies went 0-for-5 on their West Coast trip, doing just enough down the stretch to fall apart for the loss. Instead of looking inside on their last seven offensive possessions, especially to former Clipper Zach Randolph, who had a double-double for the Griz, guards Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo and small forward Rudy Gay all kept firing outside shots. The Clips held on for the win when Gay clanked a game-winning 3-pointer.