Chalmers Tied Record as HEAT Cruise

By: Steve Rawnsley

Against bad teams, you want to get them out of the game early. A lot of times if you jump out quickly, a bad team will give up relatively early. The Heat did just that, and the Kings seemed to think they never had a chance.

For the Kings, Isaiah Thomas played well, and showed fight, but that was it from the Kings perspective. He finished with 34 points, which was a career high. The Heat got off to a 14-2 start, and the rest of the Kings just lost interest in the game. The key to that run was their defense, as they played great defense, and got out on the run. When the Heat are running they are nearly impossible to beat, and that proved to be true against the Kings.

For the Heat, PG Mario Chalmers countered Thomas’ game by getting a career high 34 points. He also went 10-13 from downtown, and tied Brian Shaw for the franchise record for most threes in a game. He did however set a record for most threes in a game in Sleep Train Arena. (Formerly Arco Arena.)

The Heat took advantage of the lackluster Kings with their ball movement, as they finished with 34 assists on 44 of their field goals. After the Heat got off to the quick start, the Kings and Heat battled pretty evenly for about the next quarter. The Heat held an eleven point lead after the first quarter. Ray Allen had an “and one” with 9:48 left in the second quarter to put the lead back up to eleven. After that the lead never got back to single digits.

The lead was up to twenty-two at halftime. The Kings got it under 20 points briefly towards the beginning of the second half, but after a Bosh outside jumper with 10:02 left, the lead was never within twenty. The Heat dominated the Kings
from start to finish.

MVP: Mario Chalmers

Mario Chalmers lead the Heat tonight with 34 points, and tied the record for most threes in a game. He went head to head with Kings starting point guard Isaiah Thomas, who was the only one to show up for the Kings.

Key Stat: 10 Threes.

As already stated, Mario Chalmers tied the team record for most threes in a game. It is safe to say he broke out of his shooting slump against the Kings.

Next Up:

The HEAT have their second match-up this season with Utah in Salt Lake City. The game is Monday night, 9:00pm EST and can be seen on Sun Sports.