Utah Jazz: Rodney Hood hopes to return to lineup against Milwaukee Bucks

Rodney Hood cut his all-star break short a few days, swapping his San Diego chaise lounge for a spot on a training-room table.

And the Utah Jazz shooting guard hopes his mix of rest and rehabilitation over the past week will have him back on the basketball court Friday night, when his team resumes play with a road contest against the Milwaukee Bucks.

"It's feeling a lot better," Hood said about his injured right knee. "It's still not where I want it to be, but it's getting better."

Hood missed five games in late January with a bone bruise in his knee. He returned for three games only to injure the same knee, this time spraining his lateral collateral ligament.

Hood has not played since Feb. 1. But he has progressed enough to practice with his teammates Wednesday for the first time since being injured.

"He didn't do everything, but he looked comfortable," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "We'll see how it feels tomorrow and take it on a day-by-day basis."

The shooting guard said he still is working toward being pain free when making cuts on the court, but said "the biggest thing right now is not letting it swell up. It hasn't been swelling, so it's getting better."

Hood is averaging 13.7 points, while shooting 36.6 percent from long distance in his third season.

"We miss his scoring punch, being able to spread the floor and shoot the 3-point shot. We miss him a lot," Jazz forward Derrick Favors said. "When Hoodie gets back, we're going to be happy to have him."

The timing of the all-star break certainly benefited Hood and the Jazz, who have gone 4-3 without their starting shooting guard during his most recent absence.

"It was good for me," Hood said about the break. "I went to San Diego for a couple days, then I came back early — two or three days ago — to get some more rehab."

Now the Jazz want Hood back in the starting lineup as they begin their stretch run.

"He's a big piece of what we do," forward Gordon Hayward said. "We need him to be back for us, we need him to be healthy and firing on all cylinders."

Hood said he hopes to be ready for tipoff against the Bucks on Friday night but could not promise he would be ready to make his return for the start of his team's upcoming three-game road trip.

"The goal was to shoot for Milwaukee," he said after his first practice back. "I have to see how my knee reacts to it, see how it works tomorrow, and then we'll go from there. I want to play the first game [back from the break], but it's still not set in stone."

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Twitter: @aaronfalk