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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah might be significantly shorthanded Monday in Phoenix.
The Jazz were already without Donovan Mitchell, who remained home from the road trip due to continuing concussions symptoms, and had two other starters suffer injuries in the loss to Golden State Sunday.
Bojan Bogdanovic was a part of a big collision as he went for a rebound. During the hit, his legs were taken out a bit and his knee appeared to buckle during his awkward landing. He limped away from the play in obvious discomfort. Bogdanovic was able to finish the game (and came quite close to winning it for the Jazz), but his status for Monday's game was thrown into question with what was diagnosed as a knee contusion.
"I cannot tell you how much right now — it's right after the game — so tomorrow morning," Bogdanovic said. "We will know more (Monday), but I'll be fine."
Rudy Gobert also suffered a new injury in the loss. Gobert missed the final minutes of the game as trainers looked at his calf on the bench. He suffered a left calf strain and missed the final two minutes of the game.
"I think it's just a little strain," Gobert said. "I've never really had that before. It's hard for me to tell how many games or how long it will take to heal, but I don't think it's anything bad."
Gobert said he tries to play through all the minor injuries that come up over the course of the season, but revealed he sprained his ankle on Wednesday in Utah's loss to the Houston Rockets, and that likely played a role in his new injury.
"I think it puts a little more pressure on the calf than anything else," Gobert said. "Just a minor injury. I think we are going to be cautious, obviously, but I should be fine."
That cautiousness is why he didn't finish Sunday's contest.
Gobert said he felt what he described as a "slow tear" in his calf after he planted on his left foot.
"I could feel that I wasn't moving right and I didn't want to make it worse," he said. "So sometimes you gotta be smart. If it's a strain and you make it worse, it can be a lot, lot worse. So gotta be cautious with it."
The Jazz have made it abundantly clear that one of their main priorities is to be healthy for the postseason. So don't expect players to be rushing back for regular season games — even if they are against the top teams in the league.
That means it could be a pretty bare shelf for Quin Snyder in Phoenix — especially if Utah holds out Mike Conley due to the back-to-back games. Conley played 29 minutes against Golden State.
"Our main goal is to stay healthy and get better," Bogdanovic said. "And these last two games show that we can improve even with a lot of guys out."
