|
Often overlooked on the star-laden Miami Heat, Mario Chalmers came up big against the Sacramento Kings.
Chalmers had career highs with 10 3-pointers and 34 points to lead the Heat to a 128-99 victory over the Kings on Saturday night. Chalmers’ 3s tied Brian Shaw’s franchise record and set the new mark at Sacramento’s Sleep Train Arena as he finished 10 of 13 from 3-point territory.
”He had it going and we kept finding him. Mario was awesome,” LeBron James said. ”He was knocking down shots all game.”
And that included the fourth quarter, when the Heat led by more than 30 points and the only suspense was whether Chalmers would exceed his career-high for points and break the Heat 3-point record.
Chalmers came back in the game midway through the fourth quarter and made two more 3s to tie Shaw’s mark. But he never got off another 3 and left the game after playing just under three minutes in the quarter.
”I asked him (Heat coach Erik Spoelstra) to put me back in. I knew what the record was,” Chalmers said. ”I wanted to get one more to beat it.”
It was a nice bounce-back game for the Heat, who had dropped two straight and five of eight since Dec. 26. They led by 22 points at the half and outscored the Kings 37-29 in the third quarter in cruising to the lopsided victory.
James had 20 points, seven assists, five steals and two blocks for the Heat, who had a season-high point total. Miami hadn’t topped 100 points in its previous four games.
— Reported by Jeff Weidel of the Associated Press
