BOSTON – An early-morning return after an emotional win in Miami, followed by an overtime victory against a well-rested Atlanta team.

Nothing seems to stop the Boston Celtics lately.

Paul Pierce overcame a miserable shooting game with a key jumper in overtime, and Rajon Rondo finished with 20 assists, 10 points and 10 rebounds Wednesday night to lift the surging Celtics to an 88-86 victory over the Hawks.

Coming off an eight-point win over the Heat one night earlier and facing the Hawks, who hadn’t played since winning Saturday night, the Celtics knew how tired they were.

Turns out they had to pull out a win after Kevin Garnett fouled out in overtime.

“I’ve got to tell you guys: That was the worst game we’ve ever won,” Boston Coach Doc Rivers said. “I mean we didn’t play well. We just kept hanging in there. You could see the fatigue.”

Garnett had 22 points and 12 boards before fouling out with just under three minutes left in overtime, and Brandon Bass, who also hit a jumper in OT, scored 21 points.

It was Rondo’s 19th straight game with at least 10 assists.

“We kept fighting regardless of the other stuff out there. We stuck together, followed through and got the win,” said Rondo, who played 87 minutes of 101 total minutes the last two nights.

Boston moved into a three-way tie with Atlanta and Orlando for the Eastern Conference’s fourth-best record. The Celtics remained three ahead of Philadelphia atop the Atlantic Division.

Jeff Teague led the Hawks with 21 points, and Josh Smith had 20 with 11 rebounds. The Hawks had won 8 of 11 since losing to Boston at home on March 19.

“It’s twice now we’ve played this Boston team and the game has come down to the final few seconds of the game and we didn’t make the plays,” Atlanta Coach Larry Drew said. “We have to learn from it and more importantly, we need to move on from it.”

It was the Celtics’ 11th win in 14 games. Pierce finished with 14 points.

Bass and Pierce hit jumpers, giving Boston an 88-84 lead in the OT, but the Hawks sliced it to a one-possession game on Kirk Hinrich’s jumper.

The teams traded turnovers over the next two minutes, with Smith getting picked cleanly by Pierce with 30 seconds to play, but Pierce was called for an offensive foul with 10.1 seconds to go.

Smith front-rimmed a 3 and Boston gained possession after a rebound went out of bounds off a Hawks player with 1.3 seconds left.

Boston inbounded the ball to Rondo, who fired it in the air as the horn sounded.