CLEVELAND, Ohio — In NBA circles, Game 1 of a playoff series is often described as a “feel out” game.

A new glimpse of usually somewhat familiar opponents, with new wrinkles and a fresh best-of-seven intensity.

But what about Game 2? Is there a similar moniker we can provide to the second matchup?

As the Cavs showed on Wednesday in their 121-112 win over the Miami Heat, taking a 2-0 series lead in the process, Game 2 should be called the “no-overreaction game.”

“I guess it’s a little bit different, right?” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said before the game. “Because you kind of know, you saw how they’re playing us, how we’re playing them and there is not as much feel out.

“It’s kind of like, OK, we’re going to switch, we’re going to change the lineup? Are we going to play different pick and roll coverage? There’s a lot of things you could do. So I think it’s more, you’re going to react to what happened in the first game, but not overreact. You still got to focus on what you’re doing and what you think you have to do to beat them.”

Not overreacting to the highs and lows of one playoff game is all part of a larger strategy.

It’s really a series of chess moves, as I was reminded pregame by former Cavs head coach and broadcaster Mike Fratello.

“It’s moving the pieces,” Fratello told me. “But it’s about how many pieces do you want to move (right now)?”

In Game 1 against the Heat, a 121-100 Cleveland win, the Cavs led for all but 35 seconds.

It was obvious that the Heat, with one of the best postseason tacticians in the league in head coach Erik Spoelstra, would find a way to hit back Wednesday.

Atkinson thought that moment came in the first quarter, when Cleveland led by only one, 25-24.

“I told the guys after the first quarter I said, ‘That’s it, we took the punch, they hit us,’” Atkinson said. “Coming out at us hard, they were super physical, super high energy … and I thought we held our ground. I said, ‘We’ve just got to do it longer than them now.’”

The real punch came in the fourth quarter.

A late push from Miami, the Heat pulled to within two points, outscoring the Cavs 32-28 over the last 12 minutes, with guard Davion Mitchell putting up 14.

But again, as Atkinson predicted pregame, it was about not overreacting.

“Composure and made a run and then we got to win the possession game,” he said. “They were starting to fly in and get offensive rebounds and all the stuff we’ve been talking about, and thought we did a better job with that. And then I thought we executed. Again, a lot of this is matchup hunting and getting the right person in it and in the situation and like I said, Donovan (Mitchell) made big plays.”

Mitchell’s 30 points (he also had 30 in Game 1) were a driving point in this game.

But bigger picture, it was the way the Cavs didn’t overreact, even in those late moments with the game feeling like it was about to slip away.

Regardless of the score on Wednesday, the Cavs knew they didn’t need to move too many of those chess pieces outside of their pawns — at least not yet. Plenty can remain under wraps for now, and change when it needs to — later this series, or ideally, the conference semifinals, conference finals, or best-case-scenario, the Finals.

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No need to give everything away this early.

So Atkinson continued with basically the same rotation, still using 10 guys at least for now.

There was no panic over the involvement of their posts Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. As Mitchell (30), Ty Jerome (28) and Darius Garland (27) all took over the offense on Sunday, the Cavs weren’t trying to force unnecessary looks inside three days later.

Mobley did get involved early in Game 2, scoring 10 of his 20 points in the first half, after only scoring nine total in game one. Allen had a more muted nine-point, eight-rebound stat line, but it’s important to note the duo still took the brunt of the defensive grunt work, trying to contain Miami’s Bam Adebayo. The three-time All-Star was held to 11 points (but grabbed 14 rebounds) in 42 minutes.

Instead of overcorrecting, it was getting everyone involved in the second quarter that let Cleveland pull away.

Thanks to immaculate ball movement, the Cavs got hot from deep.

Cleveland nailed 11 of 16 3s in the quarter, including 10 of their first 13. Max Strus went 3 of 3 in the quarter, while Mitchell, De’Andre Hunter, and Sam Merrill all hit two apiece.

The result was a “Cavalanche,” complete with fake snow floating down from the rafters of the arena, as the Cavs led by as much as 19.

That early run coupled with that late composure is what allowed Cleveland to hold on.

But bigger picture, it’s because they didn’t need to move many pieces on their chessboard. They largely remained themselves. And it’s what got them their second victory in this series.

And that kind of strategy is going to keep them in the long game.

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