Miami Heat will be trying to extend their winning run and take a commanding 3-0 lead when they visit the Charlotte Hornets at the Time Warner Cable Arena on Saturday for the Game 3 of their best-of-seven first round playoffs series.

Despite being down 0-2, Hornets' head coach Steve Clifford remains optimistic and confident of his squad.

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"I feel like we played better today than we did three days ago," Clifford said after their Wednesday's 115-103 loss in Game 2. "That has to continue. For two games now, our offense has been good enough to win. We have to find a way to put together 48 good minutes of good defense. If we can do that, we can give ourselves a chance to win."

The Michael Jordan-owned team has reason to be motivated with their performance in their last game.  Starting guard Kemba Walker had a game-high 29 points while the big guy Al Jefferson had a marvelous evening with 25 points on a 12-of-17 field goal shooting in 27 minutes of hard wood action off the bench.

On the other hand, the Heat, who have had a remarkable field goal shooting percentage during the last two outings, are expected to make a repeat of their successful offensive performance. Miami registered a 57.6 percent shooting clip in Game 1 and a 57.9 percent in their recent encounter with the Hornets.

However, Dwyane Wade is not counting out the Hornets and is expecting regression from the host team even if starting forward Nicolas Batum was ruled out for Game 3.

"On the road we have to win defensively," Wade said. "We can't expect to take this same offensive game on the road. If that ever happens, praise God. Thank you. But we can't expect it at all. We have to win these games with defense, and our defense has to be better."

The projected starters for the Miami Heat are Wade, Goran Dragic, Joe Johnson, Luol Deng and Hassan Whiteside. Walker, Courtney Lee, Marvin Williams, Jeremy Lamb and  Cody Zeller will start for the Charlotte Hornets.

TagsNBA Playoffs, NBA 2016, Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, Dwyane Wade, Kemba Walker, Nicolas Batum, Hassan Whiteside