Atlantic Notes: Vucevic, Celtics Cap, Minott, Barrett

Celtics center Nikola Vucevic has to wait patiently for his fractured right ring finger to heal but he’s hopeful he can play again before the playoffs.

“The good thing is I can still do some stuff on the court,” he said, per Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. “That will help me for when I come back [to be in] shape, and hopefully I get a couple games before the playoffs, get back in rhythm with the guys that week between regular season and playoffs, every­thing going as smoothly as possible.”

Vucevic suffered the injury on March 6 and is expected to miss at least a month.

“So far I haven’t had much pain or anything; everything has been going well,” he said. “The swelling is coming down and been working the range of motion. So hopefully the X-ray is clean at three weeks and I can start doing some stuff and just getting back to being comfortable and building strength in the hand.”

Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

• The Celtics are likely to stay under the first tax apron once again next season, Brian Robb of Masslive.com opines. Robb points out that they currently have approximately $185MM committed in salary for next season, including $9MM in non-guaranteed contracts. It should not be difficult to shed salary, if necessary, to reach that goal. The emergence of young talent on team-friendly deals across the roster will be very helpful on that front, Robb adds.
• The Nets dropped a 93-92 heartbreaker to the Knicks, their 14th straight defeat to their crosstown rival. Josh Minott was highly agitated by the loss after scoring a career-high 22 points, according to Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “I wanted that s–t so (bleeping) bad,” he said. “Ever since we’ve been here, it’s like every game is an away game. [Friday] was just the night to really just stick it to everybody, man. As an organization, as a team, to show people that we got s–t here, yo. Man, just a sea of blue, a sea of orange. Every game we play, it’s a sea of the other team.”
• The Raptors left their 121-115 loss to the Nuggets on Friday still feeling good about themselves. Heading into their game in Phoenix on Sunday, they hold the fifth spot in the East. “The more we get healthy, the more we play together, the better it’s going to be for us,” RJ Barrett said. “I think we’re showing that on a nightly basis. But there are times and moments that we can play better as a team.”