New Celtics trade addition reveals unique challenge after return in Bucks win

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New Celtics trade addition reveals unique challenge after return in Bucks win

Brian Robb · MassLive

Tue, Apr 7, 2026 ·

4 min read

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Nikola Vucevic played in his first game in a month on Sunday, coming off the bench after sitting out the past four weeks with a broken finger in a Celtics in a 115-101 win over the Raptors.

The veteran big man admitted he had targeted Sunday’s game as his return ever since undergoing surgery on his finger on March 7. Vucevic suffered the injury on March 6 in the same game that Jayson Tatum returned from his Achilles injury.

With Vucevic back, the Celtics were completely healthy for a full game for the first time all season. However, it wasn’t the smoothest return for the 35-year-old on the floor. He posted four points and four rebounds in 13 minutes but also piled up four fouls. He was a team-worst minus 14 in his minutes even though his coach gave him a strong vote of confidence.

“He was good,” Joe Mazzulla said. “I mean, it was only 13 minutes. I thought offensively, he made the right reads, missed a couple. Second half, we kind of went to - it was almost, we were looking at some different matchup stuff, so we didn’t get him in as much as we wanted to in the second half. But he was fine, I thought. He’s just going to continue to get acclimated.”

Despite the public support, Vucevic admitted that getting fully worked back in with Boston ’s system after a month off is going to take some time to get comfortable with.

“Honestly, obviously, the chemistry part,” Vucevic said Sunday night. “That just has to come from us playing and practicing together, which is good I get at least these five games in before the playoffs then we’ll have that week between that will help.

“But I think as far as plays, coverages, kind of knowing what to do out there in different situations, that was pretty good for me. I did a lot of it throughout my rehab. A lot of my workouts were fully left-handed but I was still learning plays like that. Especially at the end of the week leading up to this one and then I watched a lot of film and stuff, just watching the game. Studying what Neemi and Luka would be doing on different play calls and things like that. I felt pretty comfortable out there. Pretty good. Just think to continue building on it.”

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It will be a fine balance for Mazzulla to weigh getting Vucevic some needed reps and locking up the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference in the final week of the season. Boston’s magic number is down to two for that spot but a pair of tough matchups loom this week against the Hornets and Knicks . Vucevic is eager to work through the process as the postseason approaches.

“Just continue to play alongside all of the guys,” Vucevic said. “Obviously me and JT didn’t get a lot of time together, but I think we’re both high-level players, both smart players, and I think we’ll be able to figure it out pretty quick. Just even being around the guys, the time I did play, I think it’s helped a lot. Obviously it would have been great to have that full month that I missed, but it is what it is. We know we’ll try to make the best out of it in the next couple games. And then also I think that week leading up to the playoffs is going to help. We’ll probably have a couple practices which will help as well.”

Vucevic, who has never advanced past the first round in his 15-year career, will have a willing advocate in Mazzulla, who is confident he will be focused on the right things as he adapts to a bench role for the first time this decade.

“He just wants to win,” Mazzulla said. “He’s been in the league a long time. If anything, making sure he’s aggressive enough to where we have the best version of him, so that we can have a different layer of what we want to accomplish is the most important thing. I think up until this point, the best version of him for our team is kind of what we saw in the Miami game. So we just have to get that back and replicate that.”

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