{"id":437643,"date":"2026-01-29T22:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T22:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/437643\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T22:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T22:12:07","slug":"hawks-onyeka-okongwu-has-dental-fracture-after-elbow-to-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/437643\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawks’ Onyeka Okongwu has dental fracture after elbow to face"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan 29, 2026, 03:48 PM ET<\/p>\n

Onyeka Okongwu<\/a> suffered a dental fracture when he was elbowed in the mouth in Atlanta’s last game, and will be out at least for the Hawks<\/a>‘ matchup with the Houston Rockets<\/a> on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Okongwu was elbowed by Boston<\/a> guard Jaylen Brown<\/a> as Brown possessed the ball in the fourth quarter of the Hawks’ win<\/a> on Wednesday night. Brown was called for a flagrant foul. A bloodied Okongwu returned for a foul shot before exiting the game.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

2 Related<\/p>\n

Okongwu was missing at least one tooth as a result. After the game, Brown said the contact was unintentional.<\/p>\n

“Just a basketball play, it’s unfortunate,” Brown said. “Okongwu’s a good player, and I know from my own experience with a fractured face and chipped teeth. … It wasn’t intentional, and I know it’s going to be a long day at the dentist for him, so hopefully he has a good recovery.”<\/p>\n

Brown sustained a maxillary facial fracture two seasons ago after colliding with teammate Jayson Tatum<\/a> while reaching for an offensive rebound. He returned to the court wearing a protective mask following a four-game absence.<\/p>\n

Hawks coach Quin Snyder commented on Okongwu’s injury after the game.<\/p>\n

“He’s tough,” Snyder said. “It’s a good thing that dentistry is a profession. I don’t know what he’s going to need. He’s pretty banged up. He took quite a shot. So I told him he’s still handsome, but it’s a good thing that people can repair his teeth, because he’s going to need some work.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan 29, 2026, 03:48 PM ET Onyeka Okongwu suffered a dental fracture when he was elbowed in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-437643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}