After the Miami Heat turned in the most efficient offensive performance in franchise history to knock off the Charlotte Hornets in Game 1 of their first-round series — as in, better than any single performance during any of their championship seasons, including the whole Big Three era — Hornets head coach Steve Clifford's spirits had to be at least somewhat buoyed by the promise of some regression to the mean. After all, there was no way this Heat team was going to shoot like that again, right?

Well ... about that, Coach:

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For the second straight game, Erik Spoelstra's club came out firing, going 13-for-20 in the first quarter before really opening things up in the second to head into halftime with 72 points — as many as the Boston Celtics scored, and four more than the Memphis Grizzlies managed, in their losses on Tuesday night — en route to a 115-103 win that gives the Heat a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Miami shot 74.4 percent from the field in the first half, including 10 straight makes to end the second, and finished at 57.9 percent, with a 9-for-16 mark from deep. That's, um, good.

Heat finish with an Offensive Rating of 122.8 in Game 2. So not the best offensive game in team history but still, you know, pretty nice. — Couper Moorhead (@CoupNBA) April 21, 2016

Even with Clifford's defense doing what it could to limit looks from the highest-value areas on the floor — just 14 of Miami's 76 shots came inside the restricted area; just five of the Heat's 16 3-point tries came from the short corners; Miami attempted 22 free throws to Charlotte's 33 — the Heat just absolutely couldn't miss, as star Dwyane Wade led the charge with 28 points on 11-for-22 shooting to go with eight assists, three rebounds and two steals in 32 minutes:

Joining Wade in carving up Charlotte's defense were center Hassan Whiteside (17 points on perfect 8-for-8 shooting, 13 rebounds), point guard Goran Dragic (18 points, 3-for-3 from 3-point land, four assists) and small-ball power forward Luol Deng (16 points, six rebounds). That avalanche of Heat baskets was cause for celebration on the Miami sideline ...

... and it rendered a second straight strong-enough offensive effort for the Hornets all but meaningless.

"Again, despite the fact that we didn't make 3s, our offense was more than good enough to win," Clifford said after the game. "And, I mean, on the glass-half-full [side], our defense in the second half was much better. They, tonight, shot the ball really well from the perimeter. Even guys that you wouldn't mind taking some of those shots made it, and Wade was unbelievable. To me, that was basically the game.

"If we're going to get 103, we've got to win," he added. "For two games now, our offense has been more than good enough to win. We've got to find a way to be able to put together 48 good minutes of defense. If we can do that and stay low-turnover, we'll give ourselves a chance to win."

If they do that, they might finally cool down a Heat offense that's been historically scorching to open this series:

With a 63.4% eFG in first 2 games, Miami has the best effective field goal percentage in the 3-point era through two games of any series — CBS Sports NBA (@CBSSportsNBA) April 21, 2016

Short-circuiting Miami's locked-in rhythm, though, might not be as simple as making individual personnel adjustments or specific tactical switches, as Clifford noted in a tremendous postgame comment about how little you can see without watching film and how, sometimes, the game boils down to whether you do basic things better and the other guys don't make a ludicrous amount of shots:

.@hornets coach Steve Clifford takes no prisoners after his team's Game 2 loss to Miami. #NBAPlayoffs https://t.co/iaT3jhkXM3 — NBA TV (@NBATV) April 21, 2016

Clifford's certainly right that his team's scoring well enough to win, but he's still got to be at least moderately concerned about the fact that his team, which ranked fourth in the NBA in 3-point attempts at 29.4 per game this season, has managed just 33 total long-ball tries through two games against a Heat defense determined to run Charlotte's shooters off the line. Moreover, he's probably not thrilled about the fact that the Hornets have only made seven, including a 1-for-16 mark in Game 2, with key shooters Nicolas Batum, Marvin Williams, Jeremy Lin and Courtney Lee combining to go 0-for-10 from deep.

Story continues