Rondo scores 26 as Celtics beat Magic 91-80

BOSTON — Rajon Rondo kept scoring inside while the Orlando Magic continued missing from outside.

Boston's pass-first point guard drove aggressively to the hoop and scored 26 points to lead the Celtics to a 91-80 win on Sunday.

"He totally dominated us," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said, "got where he wanted to go anytime he wanted to go."

With Rondo scoring 11 points, the Celtics extended a 46-43 halftime lead to 70-61 after the third quarter. They led by eight to 16 points the rest of the way.

Paul Pierce had 18 points and Kevin Garnett scored 16 for the Celtics, who improved to 23-4 at home. Dwight Howard had 28 points — only six in the second half — and 13 rebounds for the Magic, who lost for the fifth time in eight games despite playing tight defense on Pierce and Ray Allen.

"They didn't leave Ray or Paul's body. I tried to be aggressive," Rondo said. "The lane just opened up a lot more even though Dwight was down there."

The Celtics rallied after a scary injury to backup guard Marquis Daniels with 11:01 left in the second quarter. He was taken off the court on a stretcher after a collision with Gilbert Arenas and Orlando ahead 24-17.

Dr. Brian McKeon, the Celtics' team physician, said Daniels bruised his spinal cord. Danny Ainge, the team's president of basketball operations, said Daniels had full function and, as a best case, would miss one to two months.

The injury helped the Celtics "a lot," Rondo said. "It's crazy to say you have to wait for something to happen to get a boost. That's how it is."

Boston led by three at halftime and stretched that to 70-55 with 3:36 left in the third quarter. At that point, the Celtics had made 9 of their 10 shots in the period while the Magic had hit just 4 of 18.

"I just could not find anything for us to run to get a decent shot," Van Gundy said.

Orlando scored the last six points of the third quarter, cutting the lead to 70-61, but the Celtics came right back with a 7-2 run to go ahead 77-63.

"I thought Rondo took the third over," Garnett said. "In the second half, we had a lot more energy emotionally."

Allen made 2 of 4 3-point attempts and moved within three of the NBA record of 2,560 made 3-pointers held by Reggie Miller. Allen can improve on his total of 2,557 at Charlotte on Monday night.