MIAMI — As Jayson Tatum concluded his media availability on Wednesday morning, Nikola Vucevic sauntered by.
“Say something nice about me, Jayson!” Vucevic belted after passing by the scrum.
“Vooch? He’s been working his ass off,” Tatum said with a smile. “He’ll
be back soon, I hope.”
How soon that’ll be remains to be seen, but the veteran’s return to the court certainly feels imminent. Vucevic spent a portion of Wednesday’s shootaround playing 3-on-3 alongside Hugo Gonzalez and Celtics assistants Craig Luschenant, DJ MacLeay, Amile Jefferson, and Tyler Lashbrook. He took physical contact, shot around, defended, and threw passes, seemingly utilizing his injured right hand.
Vucevic fractured his right ring finger on Friday, March 6th, almost four weeks ago. The Celtics announced the following day that he underwent a successful ORIF surgery to stabilize the fracture and that he’d be re-evaluated in 3-4 weeks.
And, while no formal update has been provided, Wednesday’s shootaround in Miami appeared to be a promising development.
“He’s getting better, as you saw in the workout today,” Joe Mazzulla said before Celtics-Heat. “The most important thing is that he feels 100%. When he’s ready, he’ll come back, and we just want him back when he’s ready to go. He’s going to help us — we obviously see the impact that he has on us as a player, especially last time we played Miami, he was huge.”
Vucevic played 12 games with the Celtics before fracturing his finger, averaging 10.4 points and 7.2 rebounds, while shooting 44.5% from the field and 35.1% from three.
Mazzulla said that, while he’s been sidelined, Vucevic has been around for everything the team has done since he first suffered the injury.
“He’s a professional. I mean, he hasn’t missed a film session, practice,” Mazzulla said. “Even two days after he had his procedure, he was out working on his cardio.”
As he rehabs, Vucevic has been working most closely with Celtics assistant coach Amile Jefferson, with whom he was previously teammates in Orlando in 2018. Jefferson said on a recent episode of Derrick White’s “White Noise Podcast” that the two have been working out routinely, but that Vucevic has been doing things exclusively with his left hand.
Jefferson has played a crucial role in helping Vucevic acclimate to a new squad midseason. Almost immediately after Vucevic was traded from the Chicago Bulls to Boston, the two went out to dinner, reuniting after years spent in different cities.
“It was really helpful to have a familiar face and somebody I can talk to about other things, not just the X’s and O’s of the game and the coverages and all that,” Vucevic said then. “The relationship we had before as friends just kind of translated. It’s pretty easy: we have respect for each other.”
In Vucevic’s absence, Luka Garza has stepped up, averaging 9.8 points and 3.8 rebounds in 17.8 minutes, shooting 63.8% from the field and 46.4% from three. On Monday, he posted 20 points on 8-9 shooting as he continues to excel in the backup big role.
How Mazzulla and the coaching staff will divvy up frontcourt minutes remains to be seen, but all three bigs — Neemias Queta, Garza, and Vucevic — have all proven to be effective when given the chance.
Mazzulla is looking forward to Vucevic’s healthy return to the floor.
“He’ll always be prepared,” he said. “And, I know when he comes back, he’ll be ready.”
