Can Mario Chalmers Save His Starting Job with the Miami Heat?

Last night the Miami Heat, without Dwyane Wade or LeBron James, beat the Atlanta Hawks, a team that had beaten them with both players just days earlier. 

Sometimes it's hard to know what the take in some of these games are. Atlanta was exhausted, playing a virtually inhumane schedule which featured four games against the Miami Heat or the Chicago Bulls, the two best teams in the NBA, in less than a week. 

Atlanta looked tired and exhausted. They also came out like they were going to easily beat the Heat without their superstar players. It's hard to put too much stock into the Miami win, other than to say that the Heat really showed tremendous heart. 

Other than that, the other thing that was evident is that the Heat have the right man starting at point guard. Sure, if you look at it per 36 minutes it might seem like Norris Cole would be the better starter. He's scoring more points, 17.9 to 15.5, and averaging more assists, 5.8 to 5.7. 

The problem is that he's also shooting .481 to Chalmer's .565 and turning it over 4.2 times to 3.6 times. 

Overall, Chalmers' 19.1 PER is nearly four points better than Cole's 15.2. Clearly Chalmers is the better player, but the problem is he's playing alongside the big three.

He's taking a secondary role, so his production is less. That doesn't mean it can't be more though. What last night showed was that when he was needed he could step up. Chalmers' production last night wasn't golden, it was "LeBRONZian" (Feel free to boo). 

He nearly scored a triple-double and his 29 points, eight boards and seven assists are virtually identical to what James has been averaging this year (29.9, 7.7 and 7.4). 

Cole's role on the bench has been welcomed. He provides the Heat what they desperately need, a player who can score off the bench. He's shown more of a scorer's than passer's mentality, though, and he's also given up some pretty big lines to backup point guards. 

Cole is better served as a sixth man than as a starter. Chalemers is the better starter, and showed that he could step up when needed. This should put the talk of his losing his job to rest for now. He didn't get any coal in his stockings for Christmas and he won't get any Cole in shoes in the near future.