Yi Shows He's the Real Deal Against Yao and the Houston Rockets

Yi Jianlian finished the game with 19 points and nine rebounds, including two of two from beyond the arc. Yi also had a blocked shot and two steals in the game.

Yi seemed a bit nervous at the start of the game, perhaps the result of knowing the game was being view by over 200 million people in his homeland of China, by settled down eventually with the help of his sure jumpshot.

Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets got the better of Yi however, in scoring 28 points to go with ten rebounds. Yao also went perfect from the free throw line in making all 14 attempts from the charity stripe. Yi did however score the same number of baskets as Yao in making seven shots despite taking four less attempts (12) than Yao (16).

The unbelievable part to Yi’s game is that he is already getting better in just his fifth game and his ceiling is as high as he wants it wants to be. Yi has perfect technique on his jumpshot where it seems as if the only misses he has had on it are when they are too long but never to the left or the right, and shows the will to hustle hard on every possession. There were multiple times were he was a factor in the transition game, often outrunning the entire team to the basket on a fastbreak and hustling back to defend after a turnover, which is almost unheard of from a seven footer.

His only weaknesses are his first step when he drives to the basket that he seems to telegraph before he makes his move and his inability to finish around the basket because of his lack of strength. Both, however, are fixable with good coaching on his drive move and hard work in the weight room to improve his strength that will come with time.

As it is right now though, he should have plenty of open shots that he’s capable of knocking down if defenses decided to double Michael Redd. A lot has also been made of a rumor that Yi was promised to average 20 minutes per game on the season, but if the first five games has taught us anything, it’s that Yi should be on the court for as long as possible.

Michael Redd played well again in scoring 26 points, along with seven rebounds and four assists. Redd talked about trying to improve his entire game in the off-season and its showing up in the boxscore by averaging 23.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game in the first five games so far, doubling his career assist average of 2.1, improving his career rebounds average by two boards a game, and raising his steals average by .4 per game.

Mo Williams also had a good game after a horrific start to the season. He finished a rebound and an assist shy of a triple double in registering 10 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists. He also knocked down a couple of nice open jumpshots, which is fine with Bucks fans as long as its going in and he’s not forcing fadeaway runners with three guys on him. However, somewhat concerning is that Williams has yet to reach the foul line in any of the five games so far.

The rest of the Bucks roster didn’t do much against the Rockets defense, with the exception of Desmond Mason who scored on five of the seven shots he took. Andrew Bogut was especially ineffective against the 7’6” Ming. He took it multiple times at Yao early in the game only to get rejected each time before picking up two quick fouls. He played good defense while he was in the game but was largely ineffective on offense. Bogut has drawn by far the worst match ups of any of the Bucks starters to begin the season in having to face Orlando’s Dwight Howard, Charlotte’s Emeka Okafor, Chicago’s Ben Wallace, and Houston’s Yao Ming in four of the five games so far.

The Bucks played close for most of the game closing the gap to two points at 82-84 on one of Yi’s three-pointers with 6:16 remaining in the game, but that was as close as Milwaukee would get as Houston went on to score the next 14 points to give Houston a 16 point lead with 2:45 left.