With Ronnie Brewer missing Saturday night's game to attend a funeral, Morris Almond will make his first career start for the Jazz when they play the Orlando Magic at EnergySolutions Arena.
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said he decided to keep Andrei Kirilenko and Kyle Korver in their regular roles coming off the bench and give Almond, a second-year guard, the opportunity to start. "I feel like I've got to earn the right to wear my jersey and also earn every minute I get," Almond said at the pregame shootaround, "so I definitely see it as a good thing. I'll try to build off it tonight."
Almond has averaged 5.1 points in 13.4 minutes while shooting 43.3 percent this season. He spent the bulk of his rookie season in the NBA Development League, but has earned positive reviews from Sloan.
"We've got a lot of young guys and we hope that they can progress and make themselves better players so our team will be better," Sloan said.
Almond will match up against Orlando guard Keith Bogans. The Magic are coming off a 113-112 loss Friday to Phoenix in which Dwight Howard left with a sore left knee with eight minutes left in the third quarter. Howard has yet to miss a game in his career.
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rsiler@sltrib.com
