Guerschon Yabusele Will Start Against Washington Due To The Celtics’ Injury Issues

The Boston Celtics are firmly in the No. 2 spot in the Eastern Conference with 15 games to play, leading the third seeded Pacers by 6.5 games, which is a very good thing because at the moment, Boston’s roster is extremely depleted by injuries.

The Celtics injury report is filled with its top players, with six players in total being forced to miss Wednesday night’s game against the Wizards. Just look at this.

The lone bright spot is that Jayson Tatum’s back tightness will not force him out of the starting lineup, but everyone else from Boston’s normal starting five will be sitting out against Washington. With Daniel Theis’ season ending knee injury, the frontcourt is so thin that the starting power forward role is being filled by rookie and Celtics Twitter cult hero Guerschon Yabusele, who has appeared in 22 games for a total of 110 minutes this season and was recently recalled from the Maine Red Claws of the G League.

Yabusele will join Terry Rozier, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Morris and Aron Baynes in Boston’s starting lineup, with only 11 players active for the squad.

This isn’t the ideal situation for Boston, but with their position in the East pretty close to wrapped up (although they’ll certainly need some of those stars back soon to lock up the second seed) it does offer us a chance to marvel at Yabu’s game for extended minutes (and possibly get some more Rozier magic).

For those not aware of the wonder that is Guerschon Yabusele, he has dominated when with the Red Claws to the tune of 20.3 points and 7.9 boards per night in 14 games. In his limited run with the Celtics, he’s become best known for his phenomenal celebration after a made three-pointer in which he mimics firing an arrow and then dabs.

The Celtics will hope to see that celebration often on Wednesday night, but if nothing else there is some good news on the horizon. The team announced Irving will travel with the team on their upcoming road trip and could play on Friday night against the Magic, although that’s not set in stone.

The rest remain to be seen. Al Horford will be back once he’s feeling 100 percent, which one would expect to be fairly soon. Jaylen Brown, who is working back from a concussion, is not traveling with the team even though he’s improving, meaning the earliest he will return is next Tuesday. Marcus Smart’s status remains something of a mystery, as he continues to look into options regarding his thumb injury.