Los Angeles - Rajon Rondo picked the right time to snap out of scoring slump. Rondo scored a season-high 18 points and handed out eight assists as the defending NBA Champion Celtics routed the visiting Pistons 98- 80 in a rematch of last year's Eastern Conference finals.
In the previous four games, Rondo totaled just 13 points on an icy five-of 25 shooting. However, the speedy point guard connected on seven-of-11 shots, including a three-pointer, while managing to outscore Piston's hotshot Allen Iverson, 18-16.
"You never expect Rondo to outscore Iverson, but it's definitely a big plus on a night like this," said Celtics' leading scorer Paul Pierce, who finished with just nine points.
"It takes a lot of pressure off a lot of other guys. Nobody had to have a huge night, but it was a great team effort with Rondo leading the charge."
Kevin Garnett had 15 points while backup Tony Allen added 13 and Ray Allen finished with 12 for the Celtics (11-2) whose bench outscored the Pistons' reserves, 42-29 in the runaway win.
"Tony and our entire bench were great," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "All the guys are starting to get back to their roles that they should play for the team and it's making them better."
Iverson had 16 points with four assists for Detroit (8-4) which dropped to 4-4 since acquiring the former league MVP from Denver on November 3 for Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess and Cheikh Samb.
"Rondo played great," Iverson said. "He did an excellent job coming off picks and getting to the basket and making plays."
Rasheed Wallace added 13 points while Richard Hamilton finished with 12 for the Pistons, who dropped an 89-76 decision to the Celtics on November 9.
"They played well tonight. They beat us convincingly two times, once home and once here, so we have got to be a lot better," Hamilton said. "Anytime you play against tough teams, all the little stuff that you don't do against the bad teams, you can't get away with playing against the good teams. So this tells us we have got a lot of work to do."
The Pistons were coming off impressive victories in the last five days. They stopped the LA Lakers' season-opening seven-game winning streak on the road, and ended the Cleveland Cavaliers' eight-game run on Wednesday before coming up against mighty Boston.
The Celtics led by nine at halftime before taking control in the third quarter behind Rondo. He had 10 points and four assists as they outscored their guests 28-17 for a 77-57 cushion, en route to the easy home-court victory.
"It was a huge game for us. This is probably one of the better team, not only in the Eastern Conference but in our league," Garnett said. "It's a team that we might see later on, so the more the merrier. We knew that we had to bring it.
"Defensively, we set a tone in the third quarter and stayed with it," he continued. "When we put our foot on the gas, I don't think we looked back."
Meanwhile, in the only other NBA action on Thursday, the LA Lakers downed the Phoenix Suns, 105-92, paced by strong efforts by reigning league MVP Kobe Bryant and Vladimir Radmonovic.
Bryant scored 24 points on just eight-of-23 shooting, but sharpshooting Radmanovic hit all five of his 3-pointers for 15 points as the Lakers improved their league-best record to 9-1.
Lamar Odom had 13 points with nine rebounds for the Lakers, who outscored their hosts 54-43 in the decisive middle quarters.
Amare Stoudemire powered in for 21 points while former Lakers star Shaquille O'Neal had 15 with nine rebounds for the Suns (8-5) who have dropped two in a row.
With the Lakers leading 50-44 at halftime, Bryant scored 11 points and Radmanovic drilled a pair of triples as Los Angeles opened up an 80-67 cushion after three quarters.
The lead ballooned to 89-71 on Odom's 3-pointer with 8:33 to play, and it never dipped below 10 the rest of the way.
