Gordon Hayward will be in the building and Joe Johnson will play when Jazz meet Celtics tonight

Boston • Rarely have the Jazz gone into a game with as many different storylines as tonight’s meeting with the Boston Celtics at TD Bank Garden.

A reunion with Gordon Hayward is the most obvious. The Jazz will see their former teammate for the first time since he bolted for the Celtics in free agency over the summer. Jazz forward Joe Ingles went to dinner with Hayward on Thursday night. On Friday, Hayward is expected to be in the building, though it is unclear if he will make himself available to the news media.

Then there’s Joe Johnson, who is making a long-awaited return, after missing much of the season with tendon instability in his wrist. And there’s Jonas Jerebko, who is returning to Boston for the first time since free agency. The Jazz power forward played three seasons with the Celtics. Oh, and there’s that pesky four-game losing streak that the Jazz will have to try and break — against the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference.

Truth be told, that’s the only thing Jazz coach Quin Snyder is worried about.

“The Celtics. It’s easy to see why they are the best team in the east,” Snyder said Friday morning. “They’re great defensively. Al Horford and Marcus Smart are unique and go a long way into making them what they are. Kyrie Irving is a great player.”

It helps that the Jazz are getting Johnson back. Snyder said he will put the veteran forward right back into the regular rotation, which means someone who had previously been getting quality minutes might get squeezed Friday night.

Johnson won’t be on a strict minutes limit, Snyder said, although the Jazz will monitor him for fatigue purpose.

“I’m just glad to be out there on the court,” Johnson said. “I didn’t have an injury to my lower extremities, so it was just about getting rest and getting strength in my wrist.”

The Jazz need a win, that much is for sure.

Sitting at 13-15 this season, they are just 2-10 on the road, which is the second worst record in the Western Conference away from home —trailing only the 2-11 Dallas Mavericks. They’ve lost both games on the current road trip, with Boston, Cleveland, Houston and Oklahoma City still left before returning home.

Despite this, the Jazz were in good spirits at Friday’s shootaround. Rookie guard Donovan Mitchell waxed poetic about playing against a historic franchise like the Celtics, then promptly showed his age and made everyone else feel old when his version of Celtics history turned out to be the 2008 NBA Finals.

“I just remember watching them when the big three [Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen] got their championship,” Mitchell said.

If nothing else, the Jazz are starting to become whole again, after spending the entire season managing key injuries. With Johnson’s return, only Raul Neto (concussion) and Dante Exum (shoulder) remain out.

Whether that’s enough to challenge the Celtics remains to be seen.