It’s not unusual for a superstar to yell at a teammate on the sidelines. However, it’s extremely rare to see a superstar admit he was wrong for yelling at a teammate.

LeBron James admitted he lost his cool when he aggressively went after Mario Chalmers during a timeout. James was caught by ESPN cameras rushing at Chalmers and both players had to be separated. The argument was triggered by a blown defensive assignment on Paul George during the third quarter of the Heat-Pacers game. James rode Chalmers hard during a break in the action, which is nothing new because Chalmers is the Heat’s unofficial whipping boy — mostly hearing it from James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh the last four seasons.

But Chalmers fired back at James during their war of words, and that’s when The King snapped and uncharacteristically lost his cool. Once things settled down, LeBron seemed apologetic about the whole situation. If you read his lips, he said, “Rio. I was wrong. My bad.”

Immediately after the Heat defeated the Pacers, 97-94, LeBron took to Twitter to issue a public apology to Chalmers.

It takes a big man to say he was wrong, and LeBron earned a lot of respect for what he did. Too many athletes today like to dish blame but don’t like it when they’re getting criticized. The James-Chalmers sideline spat could have escalated to something much worse, but LeBron immediately squashed it by admitting his mistake. A sign of a true leader.

You could sense the Heat-Pacers game Wednesday had a playoff-like intensity. It was no ordinary game. In fact, if it were an ordinary game LeBron would definitely sit out and rest his bum ankle.

But this was Heat vs. Pacers, round 2. A rematch of the 2013 Eastern Conference finals that went seven games and a preview of the 2014 Eastern Conference finals. The way the East is unfolding (or folding), the Heat and the Pacers have a free pass until May when they’ll likely see each other with an NBA Finals berth on the line.

James wasn’t about to miss one of the most important regular-season games for the Heat. Indiana won the first meeting, now Miami returned the favor by winning the second game behind a huge second-half surge that erased a 15-point Pacers lead. Round 3 is in March in Indiana. To borrow a quote from former Jets linebacker Bart Scott, “Can’t wait!”

Joel Huerto is editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Mario Chalmers paced the Heat with 19 points in Game 2 to even the series at 1-1. (GETTY IMAGES)

The Heat game plan for Game 2 was simple: wear down Tony Parker.

Mario Chalmers heard the message loud and clear, as the fifth-year pro kept Parker busy on defense by being more aggressive because the best way to slow down a great scorer is to make him play defense. Chalmers drove to the basket every chance he got and ran Parker through a myriad of screens.

It worked.

Parker got knocked down a few times and one time grabbed his side after taking a hard screen from LeBron James. The hard screens began to take its toll in the second half. After a scintillating 21-point Game 1 with no turnovers, Parker was limited to 13 points on 5-of-14 from the field and committed five turnovers in Game 2, and even tossed up an air ball.

“We tried to give him different looks and not have him get comfortable,” said Chalmers, who along with Norris Cole forced Parker into tougher shots all game and never allowed him to get rolling like he did in Game 1.

“My main focus is to stop Tony Parker,” Chalmers said. “That’s my job. That’s the key to the game. If the offense keeps going for me, then I’m going to take it when it comes.”

Chalmers, who has a career average of 8.6 points per game, led the Heat with 19 points and was 6-for-12 from the field Sunday night — a night when the Heat role players stepped up big time to even the NBA Finals at 1-1.

“He’s got guts, c’mon. He’s had that all the way in college,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Chalmers, a player who often finds himself on the receiving end of a tongue lashing from LeBron, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh when things are not going according to plan.

“He’s got incredible confidence in his game,” Spoelstra said. You have to have guts to play with our guys. If you don’t you get swallowed up.”

Chalmers never gets rattled and seems to play his best (11.5 points in 13 NBA Finals games) when it matters most.

“I think Rio, more than anybody, kept us aggressive. Him getting into the paint, him getting those and-ones, and him getting a couple of threes allowed me to kinda sit back and take my time,” LeBron said of the Heat guard who was the catalyst of Miami’s second-half explosion that turned a nip-and-tuck affair into a 103-84 blowout for the Heat.

After the Spurs took a 62-61 lead with 3:50 left in the third quarter, Chalmers’ basket and free throw put the Heat up 64-62, then set up Ray Allen’s 3-pointer from the wing with a nice kick-out pass that ABC announcer Jeff Van Gundy called an “unselfish play.”

Moments later, Chalmers used a LeBron James screen to get around Parker and when Kawhi Leonard helped out, he slipped a pocket pass between the two Spurs and right to James for a layup that gave the Heat a 69-62 lead. Chalmers capped off a 14-3 run when he blew past Parker and scored on a short jumper plus a foul for another 3-point play.

“Rio has to play big for us. Defensively, he’s guarding arguably the best point guard in the league. But he also has to make Tony [Parker] work on the defensive end,” James said. “He can’t be passive. He has to attack and shoot his shots when he has them.

“We ran a lot of pick-and-rolls between the two of us, and I told him keep attacking and let’s try to push this lead up and go for the kill. And we were able to do that.”

Mario Chalmers' (right) 25 points in Game 4 powered the Heat to a win over the Thunder. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Without a doubt LeBron James was the best player in the 2012 NBA Finals and deserved to be the MVP. But LeBron also got a lot of help from his teammates.

The Miami Heat are NBA champs thanks to some timely clutch plays from Shane Battier, Mario Chalmers, and Mike Miller. Battier’s five 3-pointers and 17 points was huge in the Heat’s Game 2 win in Oklahoma City. Chalmers stepped up in Game 4, scoring 25 points, and was absolutely fearless down the stretch. In the series-clinching win in Game 5, Miller came off the bench — despite a bad back — and lit up American Airlines Arena with 23 points on a mind-boggling 7-for-8 on 3-pointers.

With their spectacular performances Battier, Miller, and Chalmers etched their names in NBA Finals history, joining super role players such as Michael Cooper, Scott Wedman, John Paxson, Steve Kerr, Robert Horry, and Derek Fisher. Without them Magic Johnson wouldn’t have had five titles, Larry Bird wouldn’t have had three titles, Michael Jordan woudn’t have had six titles, and Kobe Bryant wouldn’t have had five titles.

“The last couple of games he’s had open clean looks,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said about Chalmers. “We told him he’ll get those opportunities again and step up with confidence.

“That kid is not afraid of any moment. We all know that. He’s a gutsy kid. He’s a gamer. He’s got guts. You can’t quantify that, you can’t measure it, you can’t necessarily evaluate that. You can’t teach that.”

This is Chalmers’ fourth season with the Heat and has played alongside Miami’s Big Three the past two years. He has been Dwyane Wade’s starting backcourt teammate for two seasons and has never shied away from big moments. In fact, ever since winning an NCAA championship at Kansas in 2008, Chalmers embraces pressure and considers himself a modern-day “Mr. Clutch.”

It’s tattooed on his arm.

“He has that thing called heart. Mario thinks he’s the best player on this team. It’s a gift and a curse,” Wade said. “He never gets down on himself. He always believes ‘I can make a shot, I can make a play.’ ”

Wade added, “You gotta be born with it, that clutch gene. He has it.”

The latest installment of this very expensive pickup game is Saturday night’s exhibition game in Miami featuring a team led by LeBron James against a squad headed by Heat teammate Dwyane Wade.

Team LeBron has some serious star power on its roster. Scheduled to play with LeBron are Heat forward Chris Bosh, Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo, Atlanta Hawks guard Jamal Crawford, Memphis Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay, Houston Rockets guard Jonny Flynn, Philadelphia Sixers guard Lou Williams, guard Damon Jones (LeBron’s former teammate with the Cleveland Cavaliers), Cavs rookie forward Tristan Thompson, and Oklahoma City Thunder stars Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. It’s interesting that LeBron picked up Durant on his squad because the last high-profile exhibition game had James going head-to-head with Durant, who has been on a tear this summer.

Team Wade features Heat guard Mario Chalmers, Dallas Mavericks forward and D-Wade’s good friend Caron Butler, Wade’s former Heat teammate and current Golden State Warriors forward Dorell Wright, New York Knicks stars Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul, Washington Wizards guard John Wall, and Thunder guard James Harden.

In the end, Team Wade outlasted Team LeBron, 141-140, in overtime. It was a typical offseason exhibition game. Lots of dunks, lots of alley-oops, lots of breakaways, lots of one-on-one, and very little defense. Somewhere in New York, David Stern is chuckling.