Celtics stay red-hot on second night of back-to-backs

With Monday's 100-90 win in Miami, the Celtics improved to 8-5 in the second game of back-to-backs this season. Boston has now won six of its last seven such games, including two in less than a week following the last-second victory over the Jazz on March 4. The last time the Celtics lost the second of back-to-back games was on January 10, when they lost at Toronto to fall to 12-23 on the season. They are 14-13 since then.

When asked about this streak on Monday, head coach Brad Stevens spoke about his team never wanting to make excuses for playing poorly. When one is playing the second game in two nights, it's easy to justify a lack of effort, but we haven't seen much of that from these Celtics, especially since the trade deadline.

There have been some bad losses, like the 110-79 pounding in Cleveland and late collapses against the Warriors and Magic, but for the most part the C's have been playing hard as they chase a playoff spot, which is just two games away going into tonight's home game against the Grizzlies.

The Celtics' resilience will be tested in a very busy month: they have three more back-to-backs remaining in March, including this weekend, when they'll have a chance to take their revenge on the Magic on Friday before traveling to Indiana on Saturday.

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Image credit: Robert Mayer/Sun-Sentinel