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The best way Yi found the rim tonight
was at close range (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)
Playing against the New Orleans Hornets today, the New Jersey Nets struggled early, then went small late and Yi Jianlian watched from the bench as a more athletic Nets squad closed the gap against New Orleans.
The comeback fell just short, with a few critical turnovers late in the game making the difference, and New Orleans ended up on top, 99-96.
Yi offers a certain set of skills to the Nets—shooting, rebounding, and adequate defense—and when they're not working or if they don't apply against a particular opponent, he'll watch from the sidelines, as he did tonight.
He certainly had his chances early, and made two of his first three shots of the game, including a nice drive up the middle when Brook Lopez hit him on a nice feed.
But in a three-minute gap late in the first quarter, he missed a shot and picked up two fouls, and Bobby Simmons came in to replace him. Yi would return for the closing minutes of the first half, hitting a two-point shot that bring the Nets within 7.
It would be the last shot he made on the night.
Though he came out with the team in the second half, with New Orleans leading by seven. Yi missed three straight shots, then picked up his third foul, and Lawrence Frank brought in Jarvis Hayes.
At the time, the Nets were trailing by 13. Almost immediately, the game began to change.
Nobody accuses Yi of not hustling, but sometimes all that motion seems unproductive, as he rushes out of control to foul a shooter as he's making a layup. He's tall and can block shots, but he also can get bullied by smaller, more powerful players.
And, of course, he brings the outside shooting, and if he's not hitting jump shots, he's not nearly as useful for New Jersey.
With him on the bench, a smaller, more athletic Nets lineup changed the tempo of the game. They started moving quicker, working for open shots and ensuring the Hornets had no easy looks.
From the time Yi left the game, the Nets outscored the Hornets 28-15, to close within 1 by the start of the fourth.
Jarvis Hayes, Sean Williams and Simmons would all join Vince Carter and Devin Harris in bringing the Nets to a four-point lead with 3:05 left in the game.
Soon after, SImmons would foul the Hornets' David West, giving him the chance to hit two from the line for his fourteenth point in a row. No one else on the New Orleans squad could hit a shot, and they all started falling in love with the long bomb.
After missing seven three-pointers in the quarter, New Orleans finally hit one, by Rasual Butler, to close within 1 with 1:16 left.
Needing only to eat up some clock and try to score, Harris twice lost the ball to aggressive steals by Chris Paul, and the game slipped away. New Orleans took the lead on the first steal, then missed a three-pointer on the second, but the Hornets collected the rebound and salted the game away from the free-throw line.
The Hornets are a better team, and they showed it under pressure tonight. What New Jersey saw was the limitations of the flow of the game with Yi on the floor.
Until the seven-footer bulks up and can drive to the basket with authority, he'll find himself on the bench any time his jump shooting gets cold, or when other teams start to run circles around him.
Yao Ming often heard such criticisms when he was just starting out in the NBA. He was too timid, he wasn't strong enough, he lacked the stamina to play among the big bodies in the league.
Although some teams find ways to tire him out, nobody's saying those things about Yao anymore.
Yi will need to make the same changes, gaining strength and learning to move with the quick, physical flow in the NBA, and it's likely he'll do so, as he's no stranger to hard work.
He just may get frustrated on the bench at times until that happens.
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