Rajon Rondo went to Doc Rivers and told him he had to stay in the game. “We’ve got tomorrow off,” Rondo told his coach. “Let me just go.”

He had played 40 minutes the night before in Miami and hadn’t come out of the game since the second quarter. But the Celtics had a problem and they both knew it.

The Hawks were intent on pressuring the backcourt when the point guard was on the bench and if he sat down now with his team still trailing by a point, it would have been even more difficult to come back again on the second night of a back-to-back and the fourth game in five days.

“Just win,” Rondo said of his mindset. “I don’t want to be selfish because if I’m out there tired I’m not doing what’s best for the team, but at the same time I want to win.”

“He begged to stay in the fourth quarter,” Rivers said. “He didn’t have to beg long.”

You can call it heart, or toughness or even sheer audacity if you like, but the Celtics were intent on beating Atlanta on Wednesday night. They wanted it as much as they wanted anything during this late-season renaissance.

“We’ve got great character,” Rivers said. “Tough-minded group. You could see they wanted to win that game so bad.”

Rondo played 47 minutes and recorded his sixth triple double of the season with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 20 assists in an 88-86 overtime victory. It was the 19th straight game that he has recorded double digit assists, which doesn’t seem to faze him at all.

“As long as we’re winning,” Rondo said. “When I get those assists or those triple doubles, I’m just happy to win the games.”

As much as anyone, Rondo embodies the Celtics’ ethos this past month. All they do is win, even when things are stacked against them like the schedule, the refs’ whistle or their lack of depth.

“I know he’s on a run,” Rivers said. “I don’t even know what the run is.”

Nineteen games, he was told.

“Nineteen what?”

Nineteen games with at least 10 assists. 

“Well, that’s phenomenal,” Rivers said. “Honestly, I don’t even know what that means. I know it means that he’s playing vey well, but I don’t need the numbers to tell me that is what I’m trying to say. He’s just playing extremely well. He’s been spectacular. Not only in games, but everywhere and that’s why we’re winning. It’s not just him, obviously. It’s everybody. We need a locked-in effort from him tonight and he’s doing that.

“That was growth tonight to me because that was a fatigue game. There are games when Rondo comes in those games and he struggles. Tonight, he willed that game.”

Truth be told, the coach didn’t know how they were going to win on Wednesday. Rivers figured that if he could just get it to the fourth quarter and keep it close, then his team would figure it out.

He knows that his team doesn’t make a lot of sense. They turn it over too much. They’re not a good rebounding team. These are things that are proven to be detrimental to a team’s winning percentage, and yet, they keep winning anyway.

“This team has resolve,” Rivers said. “They do. On paper, all that stuff, you know who we are. But they figure it out. They like each other and I think that allows us to win games on certain nights that we shouldn’t win. I really believe it.”

Rivers went so far as to say that this is the toughest group he’s coached in Boston. He will always love his first Orlando team that won 42 games with Darrell Armstrong as his leading scorer, but this team is doing what that one couldn’t.

“I had one in Orlando but we couldn’t win any games. This team, they’re just tough. I don’t know why. I wish I knew,” Rivers said. “Once we went small it was like, guys this is who we are and this is how we have to play the rest of the year and they’ve really bought into it.”

There were all kinds of heroes for the Celtics on Wednesday. Kevin Garnett scored 22 points and had 12 rebounds before fouling out. He’s taken it upon himself to be the go-to guy on offense when they need a basket and as always he drew the toughest defensive assignment in Josh Smith.

Mickael Pietrus played 29 minutes in his first game back from a severe concussion, which was only 19 more than the original plan, but with Ray Allen out with a sprained ankle, he pushed on through.

Brandon Bass scored 21 points and had 10 rebounds, while guarding everyone from Zaza Pachulia to Marvin Williams. When he went down with an apparent knee injury, time once again stood still in the Garden. “I told him to get up,” Rondo deadpanned. “I said it was time to get up and he got right back up.”

So do the Celtics.

“I got to tell you guys, that was the worst game we ever won,” Rivers said. “We didn’t play well. We just kept hanging in there.”