Doc Rivers looked at the box score. His eyes scanned immediately down to the bottom lines: Defensive rebounds, turnovers, free throws and field goal percentages. The coach tends to not spend much time dwelling on Rajon Rondo’s individual totals. 

“I don’t even look at his numbers,” he said. “I look at the way we play.”

That usually tells him a good deal about how Rondo performed, but then assistant coach Mike Longabardi alerted him to the rather absurd line that his point guard had posted: 18 points, 17 rebounds and 20 assists.

“I had no idea,” Rivers said. 

In the hazy aftermath of yet another routinely historic Rondo performance, the point guard was once again surrounded by the ghosts of the game’s past. No one had recorded a triple double with at least 17’s in points, rebounds and assists since Magic Johnson in 1989. No one had recorded a triple double with at least 15 points, 20 assists and 15 assists since Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson.

Kevin Garnett, not exactly known as a sentimental softie or a numbers-cruncher, said he was keeping the box score, “Just as a witness that I was here and I actually got to see this up front and center.”

Magic, Wilt and Oscar. That’s the kind of company Rondo keeps on occasion. That it came against Jeremy Lin and the Knicks, was not an accident. Rondo wouldn’t cop to feeling any extra motivation, but his teammates took note.

“I’ve been around him long enough to know when he’s motivated and when he’s more than motivated,” Garnett said. “Tonight was one of those nights."

Save for a late flurry that almost changed the game, Rondo held the Harvard phenom in check, holding Lin to 14 points on 6-for-16 shooting and six turnovers. The funny thing is, he could have actually done more. He missed 13 shots, including some easy looks from in close at the basket.

“I wouldn’t say I took over,” Rondo said. “I missed a lot of easy shots that I usually make, but it was a great win for us. Everyone stepped up, Ray [Allen] and Brandon [Bass] and [Paul Pierce.] We all made special efforts when it counted.”

The Celtics survived -- there’s no other way to put it -- for a 115-111 overtime win over the Knicks on Sunday afternoon. They were able to pull it out despite blowing a 15-point second half lead because Pierce made shot after shot in the final minute of regulation, including an off-balance 3-pointer that tied the game and left the post-game laments for the other locker room.

“I don’t know if that’s execution,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said. “That’s having a horseshoe up your rear. That’s what Paul Pierce does though.”

Make no mistake: This was a capital-letters BIG win for the Celtics. They have now won four straight games and are within creeping distance of the 76ers for first place in the Atlantic Division. Rivers played his best players over 40 minutes, including Garnett who had yet another double-double, his third straight and sixth in his last seven games.

If they are going to make a move in the standings, it had better be now, with an 8-game in 12-days road trip staring them in the face. Rivers decided after their inspired -- yet ultimately doomed -- comeback attempt against Oklahoma City before the All-Star break that it was time to shorten the rotation and get down to business.

“I wanted to win this game,” Rivers said. “This four-game [stretch], if you noticed, we’ve basically been at nine [players], and that’s what we’re going to do. I like our rotation. I tightened it on purpose. I told the coaches after the Oklahoma City game when we came back, there’s nine guys and that will be it. Every once in a while we’ll go 10, but that tenth guy right now is going to be a short minute guy, whoever it is.”

This is not the first winning streak the Celtics have put together this season. They won nine out of 10 in January and were able to stave off calls for detonation, but that was accomplished without Rondo and Allen, who were both out with injuries. This time they’ve done it with Rondo and Pierce playing at a high level and Garnett having his best stretch of the season.

They’ve also done it with two important tactical decisions. The first is moving Garnett to the center spot and inserting Bass into the starting lineup. That makes them more athletic and faster. It also helps keep the court spread, with Garnett drawing bigger players out from under the basket. In his own team-oriented -- albeit stubborn -- way, Garnett has accepted the change.

“Preference wise, I don’t like it, to be honest with you,” he said on Friday. “I’m a four. It’s what it is. I’ll do whatever what this team needs me to be, other than a cheerleader with the pom poms and the short shorts. Other than that, whatever this team needs me to be, I’ll be it.”

The other decision has been to give Rondo control over the playcalling. “It’s his team,” Rivers said. “I tell him that every time. ‘It’s your team.’ We’re all in this together, all right? But it’s just great when he takes over like that.”

This is not an entirely new development -- it’s been happening more or less for the last three seasons -- but this year has been more of a struggle with the lockout and the constant shuffle of players and games.

“Rondo’s the only one. He really is, in the years that I’ve coached,” Rivers said. “The reason you give it to him is he’s the smartest one. He’s the smartest point guard I’ve ever been around. He deserves it. He knows the playbook. He knows plays from three years ago. In that way he’s a brilliant player.”

That word -- “brilliant” -- gets thrown around quite a bit with Rondo. It describes both his play and his basketball mind. He puts together nights that leave him in statistical company with people like Wilt, Oscar and Magic and he does it while getting 23 shots for Pierce and 22 for Garnett.

“People get on him about his shot but he does everything else for you,” Rivers said. “And I think his IQ is on Magic’s level.”

Finally, after 36 games and half as many trade rumors, the Celtics are where they want to be. Not in the standings, but on the court. 

“We’re playing a pace that we want to play at and we’re defending,” Rivers said. “It’s who we should be every night, and it’s who I think we will be.”

At the center of it all is Rondo. He’s the one pulling the strings and calling the shots on the floor. He doesn’t need to be historically great, but he does need to be at least exceptionally good each and every night for them to have a realistic chance at making a run. In more ways than one, Rondo holds the key to the Celtics’ future in the palm of his oversized hands.