It’s 3 and easy for Aron
Bombs away by Baynes as center lets loose treys
Aron Baynes had been in the NBA for 1,893 days. He’d gotten into 369 regular-season games and 26 playoff games, and in the 5,699 minutes he played within them, he had made a grand total of one 3-pointer in 19 attempts.
Then in the first quarter of Saturday night’s win over Toronto — day 1,894 — Baynes hoisted two treys and drilled them both.
It was poetry. It was Curryesque.
“It was super crazy,” said Terry Rozier, “but he works on that though.”
At 5:35, Baynes took a feed from Jayson Tatum and stuck his first 3-pointer since Dec. 30, 2014, in this same building for San Antonio. A minute and four seconds later, Rozier found him for his second. He didn’t take another. Baynes was asked afterward if he remembered the one before Saturday — as if the 6-foot-10 Aussie could ever forget his first hoop from the outback. “Probably here,” he said. When reporters affirmed his powers of recollection, Baynes smiled and said, “Yeah, there we go. I knew you guys were going to spring that up for some reason. All good. I don’t think that was as pretty though. That was a bit further out, and there was a bit of backboard involved in that make.”
Wrong again, Foster’s Lager breath. That first 3-pointer was as much a thing of beauty as it was a necessity. The Spurs were beating the Celts by 14 with 51⁄2 minutes left when Danny Green got the ball after a scramble and sent it right to Baynes. With the shot clock about to drain, he lofted a perfect shot over a far-too-late Evan Turner that caught nothing by the strings.
The only difference Saturday, aside from being on a different team, is that the previous trey came at the hoop in the Garden’s west end, while these two came facing Boston Harbor.
The buckets were part of Baynes’ 12-point first quarter that did much to keep the Celtics in the discussion while the Raptors were scoring 33 points in the period.
“I was just trying to find myself, get myself in the right position, give space to the other guys,” Baynes said after the 110-99 victory. “You know, it’s something I’ve been working on. I’m not going to rush and say it’s what I’m going to fall back to or anything, but it’s always good to have that as an option.”
He said he was, “just taking my time. The best thing about that was the next play I knew they were going to close out, and JB got a wide-open dunk. It’s one of those things, just trying to make the right play every time.” Indeed, on the possession following Baynes’ second trey, he found a cutting Jaylen Brown for a jam.
“It’s about trying to make the right play,” Baynes said. “Coach (Brad Stevens) puts us in the right position. As long as we play within the system, you know, we have such great guys creating plays — Terry, Jayson and Marcus (Morris) — it’s just about trying to give them space and also trying to be in the right position every time.”
Sometimes that position is out beyond the 3-point arc. Baynes has been preparing himself to be a threat from the distance.
“It’s one of those things,” he said. “That’s the evolution of the game. It’s just always trying to add something to your game, and that’s one thing that I try to work on every day. It’s not what I put the most effort into, but it’s one of those things that you’re always trying to add to your game and get better in some regard. So offensively I think that’s just working on my shot, getting more consistent and finding my feet and rhythm.”
He doesn’t remember when the trey became part of his practice routine.
“Not explicitly, but over the last year, at least over my time here I’ve put more work into it,” he said.
After a good start to the season, Baynes had developed some issues with his shooting touch. But in the last five games — since the start of the Western road trip through Saturday’s homecoming — he’s made 20-of-32 shots from the floor.
“It’s coming to crunch time, so every time we step out there, we’ve got to make more of every possession,” he said. “And that’s one of those things, valuing every possession a bit more. And hopefully I’m making a few steps in the right direction.
“It’s definitely important. That’s playoff basketball. You’ve got to make the most of it. You can’t give anything away, and that’s the way we’ve been playing over the last few games. We started building from defense in every single one of those games, and that’s what we need to keep doing, as well.”
Rozier has seen it coming from Baynes, particularly the range.
“You know, we have shooting time and I see him stretching himself out to the 3,” he said. “He’s a pro, man, so when you get repetitions and you get in the game, it’s like night and day.
“He did a great job of carrying us in the first quarter, and we just fed off of that.”
And it was a grand, if unexpected, feast.