BOSTON – It remains to be seen if Celtics center Aron Baynes will be available to play when the Celtics travel to Oklahoma City for a Thursday night game with the Thunder.
Baynes injured his right hamstring the 103-101 victory over the Knicks in New York on Saturday and it kept him out of the 93-90 loss to the Orlando Magic at TD Garden on Monday night.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens said Baynes did some light jogging and shooting on Tuesday.
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“But he did not practice,” said Stevens who added that it had not yet been determined as to whether he will travel with the team.
While it is a small sample size, there have been enough games played to know that Baynes’ presence will be missed if he doesn't play on Thursday.
It certainly was against the Magic.
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And while most of the attention surrounding Baynes centers around his elite defense, he has shown himself to have a positive impact on the game offensively as well as what matters most - winning.
In the three games, Baynes has played this season, the Celtics are 2-1 with solid contributions from Baynes part of the team’s formula for success.
Having a significant impact on the game isn’t all that surprising to the Celtics, especially when you consider he had the best defensive rating (96.6) of any player in the NBA last season.
He has been even better in these early stages of the season, posting a defensive rating of 74.8, which is tops among all players in the league who have appeared in at least two games while averaging 15 or more minutes per game.
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