Rare Harpring start gives Jazz a boost

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 14, 2007 | by Tim Buckley Deseret Morning News

DALLAS -- Veteran Matt Harpring made his first start of the season at small forward Friday night against Dallas, and Jazz coach Jerry Sloan wasn't shy about sharing why he did.

"We got off to such a terrible start with (rookie) Ronnie (Brewer, in a loss to Denver on Wednesday night)" Sloan said. "They (the Nuggets) didn't guard him, and that probably set us back a little bit."

So Sloan instead turned to Harpring to start in place injured Andrei Kirilenko, who missed his fourth straight game with a fractured bone in the tip of his left thumb.

"He (Sloan) said, 'Do you want to be in the starting lineup?' " Harpring said. "I said, 'No, I don't mind."

Sloan, though, did have to think long and hard about making the move -- chiefly because Harpring has seemed so comfortable coming off the bench this season.

In doing so, Harpring is able to get plenty of ball touches -- something that doesn't necessarily happen when he starts alongside center Mehmet Okur and power forward Carlos Boozer.

"That's why I hate to move him out there," Sloan said.

"When you have those two big guys to start off with," he added, "we look to try to get them shots."

Kirilenko, a spokesman said after Friday's win over Dallas, will not play tonight against Phoenix.

Also out tonight will be backup shooting guard Gordan Giricek, who sat out his second straight game Friday due to bruised ribs.

LOTSA LOVE: Sloan has a fan in retired NBA star and current TNT commentator Charles Barkley, but Barkley has a different favorite for NBA Coach of the Year honors this season.

"I hope (Toronto's) Sam (Mitchell) wins it, because he deserves," Barkley said, "but I have nothing but respect and love for Coach Sloan."

The Jazz, by the way, went 0-4 in their first four games after Barkley last week called them a "dangerous" team that "people are sleeping on" -- a fact that was decidedly mocked on-air by the rest of the TNT studio crew during its show late Thursday night.

ALUMNI UPDATE: Ex-Jazz and veteran guard Randy Livingston, who signed last Wednesday with Seattle, was named MVP of the D-League after averaging 12.3 points and a league-high 10.6 assists over 46 minor-league games.

Livingston's 488 assists are a new D-League single-season record.

E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com