That’s right, Mario Chalmers scored 24 points in the Miami Heat’s win against the Orlando Magic Saturday and did so with some downright highlight-reel stuff. Here is that stuff.
Mario Chalmers took on a new role this season backing up both Norris Cole and Dwyane Wade as the Miami Heat’s combo-guard sixth man. Well, with Cole and Wade both out because of injury, it was Chalmers’ time to shine.
Rio did a good job pacing the game, slowing it down and speeding it up when the Heat needed him to do so. He scored 16 of his 24 points in the second half to help the Heat break open the game. But a couple of back-to-back series for Chalmers stand out.
The first play happened with about 5 minutes left in the game, the Heat up 82-79. Chalmers and Chris Bosh run a side pick-and-roll to the left (despite feasting on the side PnR to the right all night) and Rio found Bosh for the wide-open 3-pointer.
While Vucevic had a strong game offensively, he will continue to be marginalized until his defense steps up. Payton fought over the screen rather than switch onto Bosh, probably by design, while Vuc sagged. This would have worked if Bosh was going to roll after the pick, but he was quite obviously spotting up. Vuc was late to recover on defense and Bosh drilled the wide-open look. Why was Vuc late? (1) Because he’s a bad defender and (2) because Rio was crushing them and Vuc had to respect it. Chalmers’ no-look pass stopped Vuc and gave Bosh a little more time to get off the shot.
On the next play, Chalmers stole the ball from Evan Fournier and scored on the other end in transition. But it wasn’t your normal-looking fast break.
Victor Oladipo and Payton deserve credit for getting back and positioning themselves to stop the fast break, but Chalmers played them like a game of Super Mario. He lulled the Magic defense to sleep with the hesitation dribble–looking like he was going to slow down the offense for a set play–before accelerating and blowing by the defense. A savvy way to get the angle, Rio.
BONUS HIGHLIGHT
Watch Mario take Vucevic out of his comfort zone in the paint, leading him to the 3-point line only to blow by him on the drive for the score. A smart play to take advantage of Vuc’s poor defense and lack of lateral quickness.