SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz play the Denver Nuggets Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Vivint Arena. At shootaround today, Joe Johnson, Joe Ingles, Donovan Mitchell and head coach Quin Snyder spoke to the media.

Reaction to Gordon Hayward's injury

Gordon Hayward left his first game as a Boston Celtic in the first quarter with a horrific leg injury, where he broke his tibia and dislocated his ankle. Doctors reset his ankle on the court, before wheeling him off the court on a stretcher and eventually taking him to a hospital.

Afterward, former Jazz teammate and friend Joe Ingles called Hayward.

"It was one of those things where you really don't know what to say. At the start, you just hope it's OK," Ingles said. "I spoke to him a little bit after it happened. Obviously, he was pretty down and disappointed. But like Dante (Exum), he'll work out what he needs to do to get back, and I have no doubt that he'll be back better than he was before."

Snyder wasn't watching the play, but heard about it immediately ("within a minute," Snyder said) from a text from Ricky Rubio.

"I turned the television on and saw it. I had an emotional reaction. You feel awful for him. You don't really know how to respond. I reached out to him and let him know that with every bone in my body I believe he'll overcome this," Snyder said.

"He hit me back after he got his bearings, and said 'Thanks, coach.' I'm not his coach anymore, but when you have a player and you become close to him, that relationship is always there. Everyone on our staff felt the same way."

You know, it's strange. The Jazz ran that backdoor play for a Hayward alley-oop over and over last season. Ingles said they ran it at least once per game. And there were some close calls!

After that play, Hayward was mad.

"The one where I went up for the oop and got undercut was really dangerous. That one could have been bad. That's a dirty play," Hayward told me then. "It is what it is, and it happens sometimes, but if they're going to look at some of those fouls, they should look at undercuts and things like that."

But he insisted then, "You can't be not doing something because you may or may not get hurt." And that was kind of the theme when I asked Ingles and Snyder about that play: it was successful, and only hurt Hayward this time because of some freak circumstances, a three-way collision between Hayward, Jae Crowder, and LeBron James.

Regardless, now Hayward has a lengthy recovery process ahead of him. Kobe Bryant had a message for Hayward on Instagram after the game that describes the struggle of that process and the optimism of recovery that I thought was worth sharing:

Donovan Mitchell ahead of his first game

Raul Neto was ruled out of tonight's game due to the quadriceps tightness he's been experiencing, though he did partially participate in shootaround. Afterwards, he could be seen playing 2-on-2 with Eric Griffin, Tony Bradley, and Nate Wolters. But without Neto, Mitchell will be playing a lot of point guard.

The good news: he's learned a lot about playing the position in the past week or so.

"The first time I played the one, I really didn't know the plays, I didn't know where I was supposed to be," Mitchell said. "Now I'm getting to the point where I'm telling guys where to go. Next is telling all five guys where to go."

With Exum out for the foreseeable future, Mitchell's going to have a trial by fire at the position. But ahead of his first NBA game, he's not feeling the jitters, at least not yet.

"I'm surprisingly calm," Mitchell said. "I know I said the same thing about preseason and I said the same thing about summer league, but the nerves haven't kicked in yet."

His teammates know that he doesn't really have point guard feel yet, but they've been very impressed with his aggression on the offensive end. The second unit already feels like they'll be using his talents frequently to get baskets.

"It's going to be a little learning curve for him, but I think it'll be OK," Johnson said.

Denver matchup

The Jazz could really use this win against Denver: they're one of the teams who they'll be competing with for a spot in the Western Conference playoffs this season.

The Jazz are primarily worried about Denver's offensive weapons.

"You see a bunch of guys who can score, big men who can pass," Mitchell said. "I've been watching Paul Millsap since I was a kid."

Johnson agreed. "They're a very explosive team. They have a lot of guys who can put up big numbers."

Denver was the second best offensive team in the league after the All-Star break last year. Once they figured out how to use Nikola Jokic as a playmaking pivot, head coach Mike Malone found all sorts of ways for the Nuggets to score. In other words, the Jazz's defensive quality will be put to a big test right away.

Joe Johnson milestones

Joe Johnson is moving up the NBA's all-time scoring lists, and has two players in his sights that he could pass as soon as opening night.

Johnson is currently 42nd in NBA history with 20,033 points. He needs just 10 to pass Antawn Jamison (with 20,042 points) for 41st, and 17 to pass Tom Chambers (with 20,049 points) for 40th.

For what it's worth, though, Johnson didn't know about the milestone. "I don't look at any of that," he said. "I wish you hadn't have told me that."

Regardless, he knows now. It's looking likely Johnson will end this week as one of the top 40 NBA scorers of all time.

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