EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—Seven weeks are a long time to sit on the bench, and they become interminable when the losses are mounting and your skill set caters exactly to the team's weaknesses. Nets forward Yi Jianlian was excited to get back out there, and the rust and enthusiasm were evident when he picked up a pair of fouls 30 seconds apart after only a minute in Wednesday's game at the IZOD Center.

But Coach and GM Kiki Vandeweghe has long espoused that this is a developmental year for the Nets, and allowed Yi to remain on the floor. And he did so again after Yi committed a turnover on his first touch and missed his first shot. The reward came a minute later, when Yi broke ahead of the pack for a fast-break dunk. Not 30 seconds passed before Yi deftly turned Courtney Lee's swing pass into a triple, the first of a team-high four he'd hit (six attempts) in the Nets' 103-99 loss.

"Yi was spectacular," said Nets guard Keyon Dooling. "He's going to be able to come into his own. He's had some hardships. With high expectations, sometimes it takes that. It takes the young players, two, three, sometimes four years to get that, find their game. And I think he's on the right path."

Vandeweghe said he thought it would've been a mistake to remove Yi so quickly into his first game back, and the 22-year-old forward finished with 22 points and eight rebounds in 30 minutes, shooting 7-of-12 and helping to space the floor in a way the Nets hadn't been able to in weeks. Six of Yi's seven makes were catch-and-shoot jumpers, and the threat forced tight coverage on pick-and-rolls, leaving open players in the corners when rotations were late to arrive.

None of Yi's shots were bigger than the straightaway triple he hit with 3 minutes, 17 seconds to play, which drew the Nets within two as they attempted to come back from an 11-point deficit earlier in the quarter. But Minnesota answered on the ensuing possession, when Al Jefferson (27 points, 7 rebounds) hit a post hook. Dooling followed with a three, but the Nets never got closer than one.

Hopes were raised when they appeared to successfully trap Corey Brewer on an inbounds pass with 25.6 seconds remaining: Devin Harris and Lee closed in, and the ball rolled out-of-bounds. Initially ruled a Nets possession, which would have given them a chance to tie, the call was overturned when replay review confirmed the ball had last touched Lee. With a second stop to make, Harris fouled Brewer immediately – the third-year forward entered the game shooting only .628 from the line. But he made both, effectively extinguishing hope for a comeback.

"We trapped under and it went off my leg," Lee said. "The call went our way for a second, so we were going to go with it. But once they reviewed it, I looked to Dev and said, 'This is going to be their ball.' The refs did a good job with reviewing it and making the right call."

Overall, the Nets shot .442 and a season-best .529 from three, connecting on 9-of-17 long-range attempts. Dooling sank 2-of-4, and Lee 3-of-4, the latter playing a solid all-around game (20 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 8-16 FGs). Harris missed both of his threes, but was dynamic, totaling 23 points, eight assists and three steals.

Though he was at times overly aggressive (tossing four errant alley-oops and committing six turnovers, including a backbreaker with two minutes left), Harris also seems to be approaching full confidence in his game, notably giving the Nets one last shot by spinning right through the defense for a layup with 19.6 seconds to play.

However, he and the rest of the Nets struggled to contain rookie point guard Jonny Flynn, who racked up 22 points, five assists and four steals while shooting 9-of-19 and flipping in more than a few crowd-pleasing layups. And second-year forward Kevin Love dropped a 13-point, 16-rebound double-double in 33 minutes while helping Al Jefferson contain Brook Lopez, who tallied only nine points and 10 rebounds (though he dished seven assists).

All told, the Nets pushed the Timberwolves all the way through a botched final possession, which resulted in Yi chucking a corner three that hit the side of the backboard and caromed away as time expired. With the Nets trailing 103-99, the shot was irrelevant by the time it was tossed up 14 seconds after the inbounds.

"I can't fault the effort tonight, the effort was there," Vandeweghe said. "I can't fault how we worked to get open shots, we had a lot of great looks. And what you do, when you're going through this, is you don't stop doing the things that are right. And you keep working on the things you're doing wrong. Today, I think we made some progress. I know they don't have a good record, but this team is playing significantly better since Kevin Love has come back. They're playing with some confidence. Bottom line: they hit shots when they needed to, and we did not."

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