Rondo carries Celtics past Magic

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 host 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 8 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 6 in the second half — and 13 rebounds for the Magic, which 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.

Heat 97, Clippers 79:

Dwyane Wade had 28 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, and host Miami stretched its winning streak to six with a victory over Los Angeles. Chris Bosh had 16 points, Eddie House scored 13 of his 15 in the fourth quarter, and LeBron James had 12 points for the Heat, which avenged a road loss to the Clippers last month. The Heat sealed the win with an 18-4 burst to open the fourth. Blake Griffin had his 42nd double-double of the season, scoring 21 points and grabbing 16 rebounds for the Clippers.