CELTICS NOTEBOOK: Aron Baynes sidelined with foot injury

The Celtics center, who has missed 19 games this season, could be sidelined until after the All-Star break.

BOSTON – Aron Baynes sat out a total of just nine games the past three seasons while playing for the Celtics and the Detroit Pistons.

The center from Australia has been a durable and reliable player, but injuries have forced him out of the lineup on four different occasions this season.

He missed three games with a hamstring ailment, two more with a sprained ankle and then 13 because of a fractured left hand.

Now, Baynes is probably going to miss at least two more weeks with a left foot contusion. The foot has been bothering Baynes for a couple of weeks, and rather than risk a stress fracture, he will sit out until at least through the NBA All-Star break.

“It’s one of those things, everyone has challenges battling something,’’ said Baynes before the Celtics defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder, 134-129, on Sunday afternoon at the TD Garden. “Fortunately it’s this time of year. That’s one of the positives for me is I use it to get the rest of my body right and I still have time to come back and still be able to help out the team and get in the right rhythm.

“But you definitely want to be in there in the trenches at this time. I think we’re making a great push right now and trying to close out on a good note coming into the all-star break. We’re heading in the right direction right now, so it’s tough not being able to go out there and go to battle with these guys. But I’ll be there and be supporting them.’’

Baynes said there was no one incident that caused the injury, just wear and tear through the course of the season.

He sat out from Dec. 21 to Jan. 14 after fracturing his hand with the Celtics going 7-6 in his absence, then returned on Jan. 16 to help the Celtics win eight of nine games before facing the Thunder.

“There was no acute injury,’’ said Baynes. “It’s one of those things that’s been over the course of a couple weeks, it’s been building. The load has been too much for some reason.

“It’s one of those things we don’t know how it’s going to go. We’ll take it up to the all-star break, I think right now is the plan. One of the benefits of having that week of the all-star (break) I get that extra time as well. It’s better now than some other points throughout the season.’’

Baynes said that if this happened in the playoffs instead of the middle of the regular season, he’d been playing. The Celtics have five more games before the week-long all-star break, which begins Feb. 14.

“It’s one of those things if it was up to me it’s easy enough to play through right now,’’ said Baynes, “but if I do play through it then something worse can happen and it’s a longer time off.

“If I do play, we don’t know if it’s the next play that I’d get a stress fracture. That’s the problem with it. It’s the unknown.’’

Williams hurting: With Baynes unavailable, it would be a chance for rookie Robert Williams to get some playing time, but he is sidelined as well.

According to coach Brad Stevens, Williams is dealing with a sore back. He had been spending time recently with the Maine Red Claws of the NBA G League and has appeared in just one of the last 10 Celtics games.

“It seems like, unfortunately, when Baynes has been unavailable, that’s also coincided with Robert being unavailable,’’ said Stevens. “I don’t think it’s serious. We’ll see. I was told it’s more day to day.’’

Daniel Theis was the first big man used off the Celtics bench and provided a much needed lift. Theis had 14 points on 5-for-6 shooting with two 3-pointers in 18 minutes.

Around the rim: The Celtics head to Cleveland for a Tuesday night game against the lowly Cavaliers, then host LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night and Doc Rivers and the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night. … The Celtics went 13 for 17 at the foul line, breaking a streak of seven straight games in which they had two or fewer misses. That is believed to be the longest streak in NBA history, according to NBC Sports Boston stats guru Dick Lipe. … Gordon Hayward was the only one of the nine players who got minutes to fail to reach double figures for the Celtics. He was 1 for 6 for three points in 24 minutes. … Kyrie Irving has had at least 20 points in a double-double in four straight games, the first player to do that since Kevin Garnett in 2007.