"After a postgame shower Monday, Al Jefferson gingerly made his way through the locker room. He then grimaced and winced while slowly and uncomfortably dressing and fidgeting in his seat.

Traveling from D.C. to New Jersey and a night's rest didn't help relieve the soreness Big Al felt in his behind a day after crashing to the court hard after a dunk.

"It got worse by the minute," Jefferson said Tuesday morning.

Even so, the Jazz's starting center practiced with the team — it might've been too painful to sit it out considering the circumstances — and definitely plans on playing tonight against New Jersey.

Rookie Gordon Hayward also returned to the practice court after missing Monday's game with a sinus infection.

As you might expect, Jefferson's injury was the, um, butt of at least one teammate joke.

"Ha. You've got a bruised butt," Jazz forward C.J. Miles told him, laughing while Jefferson answered questions about his painful posterior.

"I've got a bruised buttocks," Jefferson said in a correcting response to Miles, who then empathized about how badly injuries in that spot can hurt."