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."

Elsewhere: Cleveland Cavaliers 98, New Jersey Nets 87 LeBron James had 22 points with 11 assists, carrying the league-best Cavaliers to franchise-record 58th win of the season, including 33-1 at home.

Washington Wizards 95, Charlotte Bobcats 93 Antawn Jamiscon scored 27 points, Nick Young had 23 and Eastern Conference-worst Wizards (17-56) overcame a 20-point deficit to end a five-game slide.

San Antonio Spurs 102, Atlanta Hawks 92 "French Flash" Tony Parker had 42 points with 10 assists, and the Spurs stopped the Hawks' eighth-game home winning streak despite giving Tim Duncan the night off.

Argentine Manu Ginobili returned with two points on 1-of-7 shooting after missing the previous 19 games with an ankle injury. Joe Johnson topped Atlanta 42-30) with 30 points.

Indiana Pacers 90, Miami Heat 88 Danny Granger scored 28 points and the Pacers beat the Heat at home for the 17th consecutive time when Dwyane Wade's game-winning three-pointer from the left corner rimmed out at the final buzzer.

Wade led Miami (38-33) with 21 points -nine below his league-leading average.

Philadelphia 76ers 96, Minnesota Timberwolves 88 Thaddeus Young scored 29 points, and the 76ers moved one-half game behind Miami for the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference playoff hunt

Toronto Raptors 115, Milwaukee Bucks 106 Italy's Andrea Bargnani scored 23 points, Spaniard Jose Calderon had 19 with 11 assists and the Raptors (25-46) handed the visiting Bucks their third straight loss.

LA Clippers 140, New York Knicks 135 (OT) Mike Taylor scored a career-high 35 points, Zach Randolph added 33 against his former team, and the lowly Clippers (18-54) snapped a nine-game road slide.

Al Harrington had 38 points for New York (28-43) which suffered its sixth straight loss.

Denver Nuggets 101, New Orleans Hornets 88 Carmelo Anthony scored 29 points, Chauncey Billups added 26 and the visiting Nuggets broke a tie with the Hornets for fourth-place in the Western Conference playoff race.

Chris Paul led New Orleans (44-26) with 19 points and 13 assists.

Dallas Mavericks 128, Golden State Warriors 106 German juggernaut Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry tallied 26 points apiece, and the Mavericks remained three games ahead of Phoenix for the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference playoff race.

Phoenix Suns 118, Utah Jazz 114 Grant Hill scored 26 points, including the tie-breaking jumper with 31 seconds left, and Matt Barnes had 18 of his 21 in the second half as the Suns stretched their season-high winning streak to a six.

Deron Williams had 25 points with 10 assists for visiting Utah (44-27) which dropped one-game behind Denver for top spot in the Northwest Division.