BOSTON — Boston Celtics big man Aron Baynes, who broke his hand on Dec. 19, could be back on the court as early as the end of next week.
Baynes said Monday that he’s been cleared for all non-contact activities and is hoping to be fully cleared in 10 days. Celtics coach Brad Stevens said that Baynes could be back as early as next week and Baynes said it simply comes down to getting that clearance to return to contact activities.
A return late next week would hit the early side of the 4-6 week timetable the team set after surgery on Dec. 20.
"It’s up to my osteoclast. I don’t know. It’s on them now. I can’t do anything else for it,” said Baynes. “Right now, if I can do everything and it still doesn’t let the [surgically-inserted] plate move, the plate stays in place, as long as it’s still not going in a backward direction then I’ll be good.”
Baynes said his hand feels “100 percent fine” and noted that, once cleared, he’ll be ready to dive back into game action. Maybe that shouldn’t be surprising considering Baynes tried to play through the injury when it first happened after getting snagged on Phoenix rookie DeAndre Ayton last month.
"As soon as I did it, I knew it was broken. I bent my fist and it was like, ‘It’s not meant to bend there as well,'” cracked Baynes. "So it was not the best thing. I got up and down a few more times and fortunately there was a timeout that was called, so that was the end of my run.
"I got a rebound, I got another rebound, I ran, I dunked it, a couple [other] things happened. Like I said, I was still going until they stopped [play].”
Baynes said that he mindlessly held out the injured left hand after his own right-handed dunk in that Phoenix game and got a painful reminder that he was hurt when teammate Kyrie Irving slapped his hand.
"Kyrie gave me one that I felt. I didn’t realize it until I watched the clip again, but, yeah, I kind of put my hand out stupidly with my left hand, and yeah, he was a little bit pumped up at that time,” joked Baynes. “Shouldn’t have done that one.
"I was just trying to keep going. It was all good. It was my left hand fortunately, so could still do most of the other things with my right.”
The Celtics have missed Baynes’ bruising presence, particularly on the defensive end. Since Dec. 20, Boston ranks 19th in the NBA with a defensive rating of 110.7. That’s a number well above its season mark of 104.5, which ranks fourth in the NBA. Boston’s defensive rating is a mere 97.3 during Baynes’ floor time this season.
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