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Jazz are still getting used to tweaked starting lineup without Hood

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz guard Rodney Hood (5) defended by Milwaukee Bucks guard DeAndre Liggins (25) as the Utah Jazz host the Milwaukee Bucks, NBA basketball in Salt Lake City Saturday November 25, 2017.

The Utah Jazz enter Saturday night’s matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks on a two-game losing streak.

But the Jazz still are confident. They know they have some warts, like trying to fit a square-pegged starting lineup into a round hole. But the Jazz feel that just takes some tweaking and getting used to.

“We know that we can play with most of the teams in this league,” Utah forward Jonas Jerebko said.

Step 1 of a six-game road trip that starts Saturday night for the Jazz against a Milwaukee team that’s 14-10 and has played well of late. The Jazz are 13-13. They will be without Rodney Hood, their shooting guard, for a seventh consecutive game. But Hood, sources say, is not far from a return to the lineup.

For the Jazz, that means another night without their leading scorer and another night they will rely heavily on Alec Burks to provide scoring off the bench. Will that be enough? It wasn’t against the Houston Rockets or Oklahoma City Thunder this week.

Hood didn’t go through shootaround Saturday morning. But he once again got shots up and did some work with Jazz assistant Johnnie Bryant.