Boston Celtics Center Suffers Serious Setback After Hand Injury vs. Dallas Mavericks

Nikola Vucevic was struggling to find his flow with the Celtics, and now an injury setback will give him very limited time to fix it.

Mar 1, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics center Nikola Vucevic (4) dribbles down the court defended by Philadelphia 76ers center Andre Drummond (1) during the first half at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images | Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images

BOSTON — Jayson Tatum’s return is not only a chance for him to continue his rehab and knock off the rust accumulated by 10 months of recovery from his torn Achilles. It’s an opportunity for him to get some reps with some of the new players, as well as some of his old teammates who have grown into bigger roles. 

That was evident in his first assists of his first game, hitting Neemias Queta with a lob for an easy dunk. Unfortunately, he isn’t getting the same opportunity with recently acquired center Nikola Vucevic. 

Vucevic was in the game for just two minutes for hurting his right hand during a post-up. He was subbed out and taken into the locker room, where imaging revealed a fractured right ring finger. 

According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Vucevic will undergo a procedure on Sunday and miss “approximately a month.” That would allow Vucevic to return before the end of the regular season. 

Boston's Nikola Vucevic is expected to undergo a procedure on Saturday for his fractured ring finger and miss approximately one month, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/AtHQEzstmI

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 7, 2026

Vucevic has had an up-and-down start with the Celtics. He’s played 11 games, and is averaging 11.4 points and 7.8 rebounds, but those averages are inflated in the small sample size by two games where scored 28 and 19 points. He has four double-doubles with the Celtics, but also four games where he’s grabbed five or fewer rebounds. He has admitted that it’s a bit of an adjustment from his time in Chicago.

“Some stuff is similar and some stuff is different,” he recently said. “Joe is very detailed. He likes a lot of details. A lot of it is based on reads. Some of the communication stuff is a little different than I’m used to on other teams. It’s more stuff communication-wise that they do. So to me the biggest thing is just kind of learning to adjust throughout the game.”

Jaylen Brown has been hoping for more aggression from Vucevic, but the Celtics center has admitted that he hasn’t gotten quite comfortable enough to fully attack.  

“At times I feel like I overthink a little bit, which then makes me kind of hesitant and takes away my aggressiveness,” he recently said. “[I] just have to find the right balance of still playing my game, be aggressive, use my instincts, but make it fit with what we want to run. So I think just the more we play together the more I learn my teammates’ tendencies, the more they learn what I like, it’ll help us.”

For now, Vucevic will have to try to accomplish that in film sessions and non-contact situations, like walk-throughs and side-sessions.