Chalmers goes off at the right time (Basketball)
Anchorage’s Mario Chalmers enjoyed his greatest scoring outburst of the season Friday and helped the Miami Heat issue the Denver Nuggets their first loss of the season, 96-88.
The former Bartlett High All-American netted a season-high 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting—with Lil’ Wayne watching from courtside. He drained 4 of 5 3-pointers, grabbed a season-high five rebounds and looked fabulous against one of the toughest point guards in the NBA, Chauncey Billups.
Chalmers sank two key 3-pointers—one at the end of the second quarter and another at the beginning of the third quarter—to find his groove. Once he was there, he went into another gear.
“All in a span of about 2 minutes, he got past Chauncey Billups for a reverse layup, made another 3-pointer (he was 6 for 7 from the field at the time) and split the lane with a nifty bounce pass to O’Neal for a 68-44 lead with 5:18 left in the third,” wrote Tim Reynolds of the AP.
Chalmers is averaging 8 points, 5 assists and 2.4 steals per game for the 5-1 Southeast Division leaders.
