“I felt good about all the shots that I took, I took a lot. My teammates told me to stay aggressive,’’ said Rondo, who made 7 of 22. “I missed a lot of easy layups, but the jump shots I usually try to take at the midrange game. I accomplished them, I took them, but I missed them.

“There’s going to be nights like tonight where I miss a lot of shots, but I try to continue to fight through, continue to grind and get the win for my team.’’

Of course no critical Celtics game would go without an entertaining exchange between teacher (Doc Rivers) and pupil (Rondo).

Rivers believed Rondo was being too unselfish - it was 26th consecutive game with double-digit assists - but still wanted him to cohesively run the offense. That was a challenge. The Celtics were as awful offensively in the halfcourt as they had been all season, despite Rondo’s attempting to distribute the ball to his teammates.

In the first half, he scored 2 points with 5 assists and 5 turnovers as the Celtics clung to a 40-38 lead. The Celtics attempted 15 fewer shots than the Hawks in the first half and were being saved by free throw attempts.

“[A point guard gets] mixed up sometimes, executing, running the stuff,’’ Rivers said. “Sometimes for them that means not being aggressive.

“And it’s funny, we had an exchange in the third or fourth quarter. I said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to be aggressive,’ and he said, ‘Well, I thought you wanted me to run the stuff.’ And I said, ‘Yeah. And be aggressive. You have to do both at the same time.’ And then finally I told him, ‘Just be a scorer. Just attack.’ And I thought that freed him up a little bit.’’