March 7: Vucevic underwent ORIF surgery on Saturday morning to stabilize a fracture in his right ring finger, according to a team update (Twitter link). Vucevic will be reevaluated in three-to-four weeks.
March 6: Veteran center Nikola Vucevic fractured the ring finger on his right (shooting) hand and will miss the remainder of Friday’s game vs. Dallas, the Celtics announced (via Twitter).
Vucevic will undergo surgery on Saturday and is expected to miss about a month, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (via Twitter).
According to Brian Robb of MassLive, Vucevic sustained the injury in the first quarter of Friday’s contest. The 35-year-old played under two minutes prior to exiting the court with the team’s trainers. X-rays revealed the broken finger.
Vucevic, who is playing on an expiring $21.5MM contract, will be an unrestricted this summer if he doesn’t sign a veteran extension with Boston before July 1, the start of the new league year.
The 16th overall pick in the 2011 draft, Vucevic spent his rookie season with Philadelphia, then was traded to Orlando in the 2012 offseason as part of the four-team deal that sent Dwight Howard to the Lakers. Vucevic played eight-and-a-half years for the Magic prior to being traded to Chicago ahead of the 2021 deadline.
Vucevic spent six years with the Bulls, who traded him to the Celtics last month. Entering Friday, he had made 11 appearances with Boston, averaging 11.4 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists on .445/.351/.824 shooting in 23.5 minutes per game.
Luka Garza is likely to receive most of the minutes at the backup five with Vucevic out, Robb notes.
Glad GSW didnt get this injury-prone soft as butter big man
Yeah, if they had they would be stuck with two of them!
I’d take him in a fight against you.
Really? I would take me in a fight vs any commenter reply guy on hoopsrumors.com, so there’s that! You guys don’t even have jobs LMAO
Hahaha Hahaha….funny and relax big guy.
Nah, I got him in a fight. I kick him in the knee and then run. I know I’m wicked fast!
“Nikola Vučević has played in 1,031 regular-season games over 15 seasons, averaging approximately 68 to 69 games per season. He is known for his durability, frequently appearing in 70+ games, including five straight seasons with at least 70 appearances.
Based on his 1,031 games played, he generally plays in over 85-90% of his team’s scheduled games”
jokes exist, you know….smh humorless AND jobless, thats the avg commenter on here, huh? no wonder yall hate me lol
Oh everyone’s laughing bro …
so tell Steve Adams to pay me then. If I am the sole reason you come here. Go on!!
If you’re the only one with a job then why do you need to get paid by HoopsRumors??? Sounds like corporate greed to me!!
I have a great government job Davey. They pay me to watch TV, drink beer and sit out in a lawn chair in front of my trailer!
lmaoooo
You’ll take covid KP and be happy you dingus! Hush!!!
Laughs in POTS
Vuc has been very durable throught his career not sure what you are yapping about.
scroll up, you shouldnt reply without reading all the replies, makes you look stupid
Irony defined
Hopefully he’ll be healthy for the playoffs. Queta is the starter either way
I hereby declare this day, national Jayson Tatam day. Let’s go celtics…
I agree on the condition that “The Anomaly” is permanently retired and acknowledged as a terrible nickname
Awful nickname. Those fans should be ashamed of themselves
Celtics have had a great year. I’ll give them that. Losing another player only hurts. Knicks better take that 2nd seed. That’s what I want.
Just checked Celtics and Knicks schedules. Looks like Celts have 6 really tough games against top teams while Knicks only have 2. Hopefully, as a Celtics fan, Celts will beat a couple top teams and then the 2nd seed will come down to that 3rd from the end game between the two in Boston. Young Charlotte could be the joker if they remain hot.
Knicks still play down to competition. I’m not convinced they can do it. Of course I want that 2nd seed. There are still a lot gms to go for it. Celtics are playing well. And adding Tatum will hype them up. Home gms in playoffs helps them too. So I expect a fight to the end lol.
Knicks with the 4th easiest schedule remaining based on opponents’ W-L records, Celtics 2nd hardest.
2 seed looks likely, and even the 1 isn’t completely out of the question given the Pistons recent play.
You have to understand NYC to really know. Local teams believe their own hype at times. Real fans know that’s not based on reality. You need strong leadership to ride you thru it. Jalen is only one I trust lol.
Simons and a 2nd for Julius Randle or John Collins or even Kuzma is a better fit than Nikola. Bad Celtics trade
Tatum isn’t a PF
Tatum was terrible rusty last night but still got 12 rebounds. What do you expect from a power forward?
Not a tweener playing PF. The nba just shoots 3s so it’s easy to rebound
Didn’t expect 27 mins. Kind of scary to me.
Middleton with a vicious karate hack broke Vuc’s finger. No foul called.
So Vuc coming back for playoffs is good for Celtics. Even with Tatum playing 22-26 mins. They are better. Can’t look past the Celtics if you are Pistons, Cavs, Knicks.