Nick Nurse talks play of Kelly Oubre Jr. in Sixers vs. Celtics series
CAMDEN, NJ — When one seems on the numbers in this Round 1 series between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celticsone factor that may stand out is the poor offensive numbers from Kelly Oubre Jr.
A participant recognized for his potential to place the ball in the basket, Oubre is averaging solely 9.0 factors in this series whereas capturing 38.3% kind the ground and 15.8% from deep. This comes after he shot a career-high 36% from deep in the common season on 4.8 makes an attempt.
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With that being mentioned, Oubre has had some extraordinarily robust defensive assignments in Celtics stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. The two of them could cause complications and Oubre has accomplished a stable job of staying in entrance of them and making life robust for them whereas additionally serving to on the glass.
“Listen, he’s had a very, very difficult defensive assignment for lots of minutes every game, right?” mentioned coach Nick Nurse. “And I think that’s kinda where it starts for me. Like, those two guys are great, right? They’re big and they’re skilled and they’re in lots of actions, lots of attempts, and I think he’s done a good job of just digging in, and taking the challenge. It’s a lot of minutes and a lot of reps because they got the ball a lot. From that standpoint, he’s had a great series.”
To Nurse’s level, Oubre’s size, versatility, and defensive acumen have made him a really invaluable piece to this workforce on the ground regardless of the offensive struggles. He has continued to combat arduous on that finish and provides Philadelphia some invaluable minutes defensively. That proper there’s sufficient for Nurse whereas the Sixers await his offense to come back round.
“I think everything else he can do—if he has a game where he’s hitting a few, obviously, that’s gonna help us,” Nurse added. “I think he only had one front of the rimmer, he had another one that he should’ve made (referring to Game 5). He got there and came up short, but I still think he sprinkles in a couple of those. A couple of 3s and he’s had great games, but some nights it’s your night to do that, and some nights it’s not.”
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Oubre is a participant centered on profitable. He can have a troublesome night time offensively, however so long as he’s doing what’s requested of him–which, in this case, is to play some stout defense–then he and Philadelphia shall be pleased with what they get out of him.
“What we do need from him is what he’s given us, which is to kind of roll up his sleeves, go to work, be solid, play every possession,” Nurse added. “Even if those guys are rolling, which they seem to do at some point in the game, you just gotta kind of short memory of it and get back to work.”
This article initially appeared on Sixers Wire: Nick Nurse talks play of Kelly Oubre Jr. in Sixers vs. Celtics series
