{"id":567418,"date":"2026-01-29T00:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/567418\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T00:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:56:13","slug":"isaiah-hartenstein-to-return-from-16-game-absence-from-soleus-strain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/567418\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah Hartenstein to return from 16-game absence from soleus strain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jan. 28, 2026, 5:10 p.m. CT<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" style=\"height:441px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769648173_87_87939851007-usatsi-27895713.jpg\"  elementtiming=\"ar-lead-image\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Dec 28, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein (55) dunks against the Philadelphia 76ers during the second half at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Reinforcements have arrived. After missing the last 16 games with a soleus strain, Isaiah Hartenstein is set to return as the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/oklahoma-city-thunder\/25\/\" data-autotag=\"cd165858-eeda-4db8-a84a-db7a782e61e3\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> travel to face the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/minnesota-timberwolves\/16\/\" data-autotag=\"ac5e47f0-6bd5-488e-9fd0-a3a235704d6f\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> on Thursday, Jan. 29.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Hartenstein initially sustained the injury in a win over the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/philadelphia-76ers\/20\/\" data-autotag=\"b3f2a355-8d98-44c0-a603-3f9a2d8bc375\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> on Dec. 28.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">It was Hartenstein&#8217;s second soleus strain of the season. He&#8217;s missed 24 of OKC&#8217;s 48 games with the nagging calf injury. Considering how tricky and dangerous those can be if not treated properly, his absence for the past month shouldn&#8217;t be a shocker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Hartenstein has averaged 11.2 points on 64.4% shooting, 10.4 rebounds and three assists in 24 games this season. The Thunder have struggled on the boards in his absence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Good timing for Hartenstein to return. The Timberwolves are the type of team you need a healthy frontcourt against. Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle have accompanied Anthony Edwards as Minnesota has played like a contender all season.<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 28, 2026, 5:10 p.m. CT Reinforcements have arrived. After missing the last 16 games with a soleus&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[72400,7,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,30882,72482,72965,72404,72491,72952,72484,72666,72475,72406,312,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-567418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-oklahoma","12":"tag-oklahoma-city","13":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","14":"tag-oklahomacity","15":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","16":"tag-sstssportsnbathunder","17":"tag-sstsnokc-thunder","18":"tag-taganthony-edwards","19":"tag-tagbasketball","20":"tag-tagisaiah-hartenstein","21":"tag-tagminnesota-timberwolves","22":"tag-tagoklahoma-city-thunder","23":"tag-tagoverall-negative","24":"tag-tagphiladelphia-76ers","25":"tag-tagsports-news","26":"tag-thunder","27":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}