Los Angeles  - Dwight Howard played big at both ends from start to finish.

Howard had 24 points, 21 rebounds and blocked Paul Pierce's potential go-ahead layup with 3.8 seconds left, as the Orlando Magic escaped with an 84-82 home-court victory over the reigning NBA Champion Boston Celtics on Wednesday night.

"Dwight was incredible tonight," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said of his All-Star centre. "He was incredible on the glass and incredible defensively."

"I'm just happy that we won," Howard said. "We played hard; it was a very physical game and we did a good job of not letting them push us around."

Coupled with Atlanta's loss to San Antonio, the Magic (53-18) clinched its second straight Southeast Division title. It also pushed them percentage points ahead of the Celtics (54-19) for the second seed in the Eastern Conference race with nine games left.

"We want two more banners to be put up this year, Eastern Conference Champions and Finals Champions," Howard said. "We have some big goals ahead of us, but we can accomplish them if we play like we did tonight."

Orlando led by 16 in the third quarter, but Pierce's jumper cut it to 83-82 with 1:27 remaining. After Hedo Turkoglu's three-pointer rimmed out, the Celtics had a chance to take the lead. Pierce drove past Turkoglu down the right side, but the 6-foot-11 Howard came over to block the layup.

"I told Turkoglu if he drives don't foul, just put your hand up because I'm coming to help," Howard said. "It worked up just like we drew it up."

After Turkoglu split a pair of free throws, the Celtics had a final shot to win the game. With 1.6 ticks left, Pierce, surrounded by three Magic defenders, launched a potential game-winning three-pointer that fell short of the basket at the final buzzer.

Rashard Lewis had 21 points, and Turkoglu added 13 points for Orlando, which won its fourth in a row, despite being outscored 20-14 in the fourth quarter.

Pierce scored 26 points, Ray Allen added 16 for Boston, which had its four-game winning streak stopped. In his third game back from a knee sprain, Kevin Garnett finished with four points while playing 17 minutes in the first and third quarters as Celtics coach Doc Rivers prescribed.

Rivers said the Celtics didn't put that much urgency on this showdown between the Eastern Conference powerhouses in the race for the second seed behind Cleveland.

"Our guys don't care, we just want to get healthy," he said. "When we get healthy we're willing to lace them up against anybody. That's what we're striving for right now, and to get rhythm." (dpa)