{"id":500009,"date":"2026-02-24T01:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/500009\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T01:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:59:07","slug":"raptors-barnes-expected-to-return-vs-okc-poeltl-out-with-injury-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/500009\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors’ Barnes expected to return vs. OKC, Poeltl out with injury management"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Raptors<\/a> are expected to get their franchise player back against a formidable opponent. <\/p>\n

After missing Sunday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks due to personal reasons, Scottie Barnes<\/a> is not on the injury report and is expected to return on Tuesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Jakob Poeltl will sit out against the Western-Conference leading Thunder \u2013 the first of back-to-back games for the Raptors \u2013 to manage the lower back strain he returned from on Feb. 11. <\/p>\n

Toronto hosts the West’s second-placed team, the San Antonio Spurs, on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Barnes is averaging 19.2 points, 8.4 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.6 blocks through 55 games this season.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old is now a two-time all-star, and leads the Raptors in rebounds, steals, blocks and minutes per game, while ranking second in points and assists. The defensive anchor also leads the NBA in stocks (steals + blocks) this season with 159.<\/p>\n

Poeltl, 30, is averaging 9.2 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists over 24 games, and missed 24 straight games due to the back injury starting in mid-December. <\/p>\n

The seven-foot centre has been dealing with the issue since training camp in September and his production has taken a significant dip in the process. Since returning prior to the all-star break, he’s averaged only 20.7 minutes, 5.7 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.<\/p>\n

The Raptors will also be without two-way players Chucky Hepburn, Alijah Martin and A.J. Lawson; and without Jonathan Mogbo, all of whom are with Toronto’s G League affiliate, the Raptors 905.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Raptors are expected to get their franchise player back against a formidable opponent. After missing Sunday’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-500009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}