Yi's Career Night Unsatisfying
February 28, 2010
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—Sunday at the IZOD Center, the Nets lost a close game to the Wizards, 89-85, despite a career-high 19 rebounds from Yi Jianlian, who also scored 20 points. The Nets stormed out to a 31-24 first-quarter lead, but shot only 26 percent inthe second half. Devin Harris added 18 points, 7 rebounds and 14 assists, while Brook Lopez racked up 16 points and 10 rebounds.
For the full recap, read Bob Considine's story on NBA.com: Click Here
Yi's Unsatisfying Career Night
The stat line from Sunday’s game at the IZOD Center looks good: 20 points on 7-of-17 shooting (6-8 FTs), a career-high 19 rebounds (11 offensive), two assists and a steal. But Nets forward Yi Jianlian was nowhere near satisfied, because the final score read 89-85, in favor of the Wizards.
“Know what?” Yi asked, rhetorically. “It doesn’t feel good if we lost the game to get 20- 20 or 20-something. It doesn’t really feel good.”
The two missed free throws came in the game’s final 80 seconds. Had Yi made both, the Nets would have led, 85-83, with 58.8 seconds to play. Instead, they were tied at 83, allowing Randy Foye – 2-of-11 to that point – to put the Wizards ahead for good when he drove baseline for a high-arcing pullup jumper over Devin Harris. After Harris missed a short push shot for the Nets, Foye ran clock before again driving baseline and again wetting a baseline pullup, this time over Yi.
Yi – a 79 percent foul shooter – acknowledged that the missed free throws strongly impacted the final outcome. The Nets forced Foye into the shot they wanted both times, pushing him baseline with Yi’s 7-foot frame looming as help rotated. But each time Foye lofted the ball above any attempted block, even though he appeared to be sailing sideways far enough to release the game-sealing shot from behind the backboard.
“Randy Foye is definitely a capable scorer,” Harris said. “He had the matchup that he wanted, going against Yi. He made some tough shots over a 7-footer. He made his shots and we didn’t.”
Brook's Baseline Blow-By
Terrence Williams had played barely more than five minutes in three quarters, a short enough combined total that he nearly doubled it in the fourth. Inserted for Keyon Dooling less than three minutes into the final period, Williams drove baseline a few plays later, swishing a one-handed runner and cutting the Wizards’ lead to one point.
But in the next three minutes, two assists never made it onto the board as Devin Harris missed a pair of three-pointers Williams set up for him. That allowed the Wizards to push their lead to seven before Williams took a skip pass from Harris and sank a corner trey; the assist was Harris’ sole dish in the final period.
With the Nets dropping back into a zone, Yi Jianlian managed a steal, forwarding the ball ahead to Williams, who hit two free throws. After a travel, Harris missed a jumper (he shot 1-of-8 in the fourth), but Yi rebounded it; fouled on the putback, Yi hit both free throws, tying the game at 79.
Again playing aggressively in the zone, Williams perfectly picked up Randy Foye as he crossed the middle, forcing the Wizards’ guard into a contested fallaway jumper. Williams leaked out as Yi corralled the rebound before sending the outlet to Williams ahead of the defense. A powerful one-handed tomahawk completed the 9-0 run and left the Nets with their final lead of the game.
“I thought that we needed some energy,” said Nets coach and GM Kiki Vandeweghe. “Jarvis (Hayes) hadn’t played much and he was struggling a little bit. I thought Terrence could give us a little energy, especially on the defensive end. And I think he did. I’m not afraid to play anybody down the stretch.”
Williams said afterward he thought that stretch shifted the momentum, but couldn’t pinpoint what went wrong as the Wizards closed with a 10-4 run. Despite the missed opportunity to build on Saturday’s road victory and create the season’s first win streak, Williams has been encouraged by the team’s competitiveness in recent weeks.
“I feel like we’re playing much better since the All-Star Break,” Williams said. “If we were playing like this all year, we don’t know where we would be right now. But we still have a lot of games left to try to get better as a team each day.”
CD-R Starts Again
Williams’ off-court running mate, fellow swingman Chris Douglas-Roberts, started on Sunday – for the first time since January 31, a span of 13 games. Replacing the injured Courtney Lee (sprained left ankle), Douglas-Roberts finished with four points, three rebounds and an assist in 30 ½ minutes.
Douglas-Roberts said before the game his goal was to fill in and contribute what he could in Lee’s absence, complimenting the two-guard on his strong play; for February, Lee is averaging 15.5 points on .409 three-point shooting and .486 overall – all season highs for a month.
Normally a high-percentage shooter (.450 for the season), Douglas-Roberts hit only two of seven field-goal attempts: a 21-foot catch-and-shoot jumper in the second quarter and a 20-foot pullup after Brook Lopez set a screen midway through the third. The Wizards’ switch to zone defense – a response to the 31 first-quarter points (and nine assists) by Devin Harris, Brook Lopez and Yi Jianlian – seemed to nullify Douglas-Roberts’ offensive options, leaving him stranded in the weakside corner as the Nets attempted to find openings elsewhere.
But Douglas-Roberts managed to stay on the floor by contributing defensively, trailing Mike Miller for much of the first three quarters and helping to limit the sharp-shooting Wizards swingman to a 3-of-8 performance. About his only real miscue came late in the first quarter, when he over-helped as Al Thornton drove the middle. Left off balance when Thornton dished over his head to Miller on the left wing, Douglas-Roberts flailed with his back to the ball as Miller swished his only trey.
The Nets next play Wednesday at home against the Cavaliers, giving Lee and Jarvis Hayes (strained left calf, though he played 13 ½ minutes) a fair amount of time to recover fully. Lee and Hayes are two of the team’s best shooters, and their ability to stretch the floor becomes crucial when teams switch to zone – the Wizards held the Nets to 11-of-42 (.262) shooting in Sunday’s second half.
