76ers’ Nurse on Yabusele: ‘He plays hard, and he’s in the right place at the right time’

This season, the Philadelphia 76ers(15-20) have battled injury after injury to their best players. On Wednesday night against the Washington Wizards(6-29) at the Wells Fargo Center, Philly was again without Joel Embiid(foot) and Paul George(groin). 

However, one guy who has been a constant for this team is power forward Guerschon Yabusele. Last night, the Frenchman scored 21 points and matched his career-high with five three-pointers. In addition, Yabusele had a big block on his fellow countryman Bilal Coulibaly late to help the 76ers defeat Washington 109-103.

Yabusele also grabbed eight rebounds and had two block shots.

“He plays hard, and he’s in the right place at the right time, and he probably plays much bigger than he is,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said after the win. “He scores at the rim over bigger people, he blocks shots like more of a bigger center, and he obviously had a huge block. Again, more just making the read on that than anything. Gave us a couple pick-and-pop plays we kept kind of going to for a while there, so he got a bunch of good looks, but again, just plays solid and plays bigger than he is and makes good plays. He’s a smart player.”

The 29-year-old, who signed with the 76ers in the offseason, is enjoying his time in Philly and thinks the 76ers are an excellent fit for him.

“I think it was a great fit because when you look at the power forward…the two Martins [KJ Martin and Caleb Martin] are really like three,” he said. “I consider myself a real forward. So I knew it was going to be a space out there. So playing with Joel [Embiid] and PG [Paul George] or [Tyrese] Maxey – some guys that draw a lot of attention on offense. So I knew I would be able to be in the corner or around the three-point line to knock those shots down. Also, a lot of energy, get the rebounds. Just have a taste of the game and bring what I can bring to the table. Just playing like I always do.”

Tyrese Maxey, scored 21 of his game-high 29 points in the second half, believes he and Yabusele worked well together on the pick-and-pop plays.

“Yabu[sele] he does a really good job of if you screen, I keep telling him, ‘If you screen, you’re going to get threes,” Maxey said. “I’m going to make sure I string your guy all the way out he’s not going to want to leave the ball and the guy that’s guarding, he’s going to keep chasing, so I’m going to find you like a lot of times. So, set the screen,.’ he set the screen that half and I just got downhill a couple times, and like I had some threes and we kind of just got rolling from there.”

Yabusele has been a great signing for the 76ers, but the team needs to be healthy. If they can stay healthy, Yabusele will continue to benefit, and so will the rest of the team.