Almond scored 14 Friday after learning that the Jazz had retained the services of C. J. Miles, making it seemingly more difficult for the second-year Almond to find playing minutes with Utah.

"It's part of the business," Almond said. "It's the best players. If they sign Michael Jordan, I've got to go compete against him in training camp."

Almond said his tournament was "solid, what I expected. Nothing spectacular. I played hard. I had nothing left to give."

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said he saw moments where he liked Almond's defense.

Assistant Jazz coach Scott Layden and Utah Flash coach Brad Jones, who assisted with the Revue team, both saw improvements in Almond.

"To his credit, he got to the free-throw line close to 10 times a game, which I thought was impressive," said Layden.

Jones coached both Almond and Fesenko last season with the D-League team. In Almond in the Revue, "I definitely saw a difference. I was really encouraged how hard he tried to play defensively," said Jones. "I thought he really showed in his progression he's figured out that, 'In order to get out there and score, I've got to do other things.' "

For Fesenko, "The rookie year is over," Jones said. "I think this week has been a realization to him that it"s time to go to work. He talked about it a lot his first year.

"I really hope that he uses this week as a positive. He was inconsistent with it (work) his rookie year." Sloan said Koufos has "got a long way to go. He's shown me he's 18, 19 years old. When you look at kids that age, there's a lot of things they think they know, but when they get out there and start playing, it's hard for them to understand."

Sloan expected Fesenko to be more active and said conditioning would be the first thing to look at.

HAWKS 105, WARRIORS 91: After an 83-78 loss to the Jazz Thursday night, Atlanta closed the Revue with a 4-2 record, getting 30 points off the bench from Demetric Bennett, who missed only three shots the entire game and had four assists. Bennett had gone 0-for-4 on Thursday against the Jazz. Acie Law IV and Speedy Claxton did not play (coach's decision) for he Warriors. Starter Thomas Gardner contributed 27. Golden State was led by 21 from DeMarcus Nelson. The Warriors ended up 3-1. The Warriors used only eight players. Former Jazzman Louis Amundson was one who did not play (CD).

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E-mail: lham@desnews.com