Celtics Announce Injury Update for Warriors Game

The Boston Celtics were back at near full strength on Monday against the Phoenix Suns, and came away with an impressive win behind 41 points from Jaylen Brown, who has continued to play MVP-caliber basketball, even with star teammate Jayson Tatum back on the floor. The win was the second in a row for Boston, which now sits 3.5 games behind the Detroit Pistons for the No. 1 seed int he Eastern Conference.

The encouraging thing for the Celtics is that, at a time when it is clearly most important, good health seems to be coming around. It has been a season defined by injury–Tatum’s Achilles tendon injury, suffered last May in the playoffs–and it’s been so far, so good for Boston, health-wise, since Tatum’s return.

The one exception has been the hand injury suffered by big man Nikola Vucevic. As Bobby Krivitsky of Forbes wrote on Twitter/X: “Per the Celtics, Nikola Vucevic, who’s out due to a Right Ring Finger Fracture, is the only player on their injury report for tomorrow’s game against the Warriors.”

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Celtics’ Nikola Vucevic Has Been Coming off the Bench

The Vucevic injury is problematic, of course, but of all the injuries that could come along in March, a finger injury is probably the least concerning. Vucevic suffered the injury on March 6, and had surgery to fix the finger on March 7. The Celtics gave a recovery timeline of three-to-four weeks to come back, which puts Vucevic back on the floor on March 27 at the earliest, or during the team’s four-game, end-of-month/early April road trip.

Vucevic had appeared in 12 games for the Celtics, with 11 of those appearances coming off the bench–a role he is playing for the first time in his career. The Celtics want to keep defense-and-rebounding big man Neemias Queta in the starting five, and coach Joe Mazzulla approached Vucevic after he was traded to Boston at the trade deadline about that change.

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Nikola Vucevic: ‘I Was Open to All of That’

Vucevic has averaged 10.4 points and 7.2 rebounds for the Celtics, but the transition to coming off the bench has not been easy–he is shooting just 44.5% from the field, a career low. The injury does make things that much more difficult for his adjustment period.

Vucevic told NBC Sports Boston, “To me, when I got to Boston, talking to Joe, he had mentioned that and I told him I was open to it. I didn’t mind if my role would be different, if I would come off the bench, if my minutes were different. He asked me to be flexible, to start off the bench and see how it goes. And figure out the minutes and everything.

“I told him I was open to all of that, it wouldn’t be an issue for me. I knew it would be an adjustment, when you start for so long—you have your routine, you go from the warm-ups straight to the intro to playing. Now, you sit on the bench a little bit. It was an adjustment.”

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Celtics Get Banged-Up Warriors on Wednesday

The Celtics will attempt to keep their winning streak going, and they’ll be doing so against a team that has a much, much different-looking injury report than their own. The Golden State Warriors are in town, and won’t have Stephen Curry, who is hoping to return at some point from knee tendinitis. Golden State will also be without Jimmy Butler, out for the season with a torn ACL.

But the Celtics will welcome back Kristaps Porzingis, who was traded from Boston to Atlanta in the offseason, then shipped from the Hawks to the Warriors at the trade deadline. Porzingis has dealt with the same mysterious illness that so often held him out during his Celtics tenure, but is coming off a 30-point game on Monday in Washington.

 

Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney