Celtics hammer Pistons

Point guard Rondo provides big spark

Point guard Rajon Rondo played one of his best all-around games of the season to help the Boston Celtics race away from the Detroit Pistons for a 98-80 victory Thursday night in Boston.

Rondo finished with a season-high 18 points, eight assists and three steals, and Boston dominated the middle two quarters after the game was tied at 21 at the end of first 12 minutes.

Boston led by 20 at the end of the third quarter, and both teams played reserves for most of the fourth quarter.

LATE WEDNESDAY

TRAIL BLAZERS 116, BULLS 74: Greg Oden had 11 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks in his home debut for Portland and the Trail Blazers built a 30-point, first-half lead.

Oden, sidelined all of last season by a knee injury after being drafted first overall, entered the game to a standing ovation with 4:28 left in the first quarter, and dunked 21 seconds later.

The 7-footer had his third double-double in four games after missing six of Portland's first seven games because of foot injury.

JAZZ 105, BUCKS 94: C.J. Miles scored a season-high 25 points for host Utah, and Carlos Boozer added 20 points and 11 rebounds before leaving because of a strained quadriceps.

Andrei Kirilenko, who had to play point guard at times for the depleted Jazz, had 16 points, seven rebounds, five steals and four blocks to help the Jazz stay undefeated at home and extend their mastery of the Bucks to eight straight games.

NOTE

LOSING IS AN OPTION? Gilbert Arenas is already thinking about the possibility of a last-place finish for his Washington Wizards -- and finding the silver lining.

With Arenas still working his way back from a third knee operation in 1 1/2 years, the Wizards are off to a 1-8 start heading into their game tonight against the Houston Rockets.

"I don't want to see them struggle," Arenas said Thursday, "but if this is one of those years where we don't make the playoffs or we finish in last place ... that's what happened to San Antonio and that's how they got Tim Duncan and look at them now."

The Wizards haven't given a timetable for when their All-Star point guard might return, but he is targeting the start of 2009.

Arenas first had surgery on the left knee in April 2007, then had another operation in November, and appeared in only 13 regular-season games last season. The latest surgery was two months ago.

"The old me would have already been playing by now. Getting older I start thinking smarter and everything is going well," he said.