Outside of maybe a postgame run-in with New Orleans' Chris Paul earlier this season, Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo rarely wears his emotions on his sleeve.

With the Celtics playing without captain Paul Pierce Friday in Orlando, Rondo quite visibly put the team on his back and led the Green to a 86-77 holiday triumph.

Looking a bit like bizarro Celtics, Rondo registered team highs with 13 points and seven rebounds in the first half (while Garnett assumed the role of distributor with three first-half assists). Rondo finished with 17 points on 7 of 18 shooting with a team-high 13 rebounds and eight assists, barely missing a triple-double.

"Rajon was an attacker. During an early part of the game, he had missed some shots and I ran out there to tell him, ‘Shoot it. Attack, you have to,'" said Rivers. "I would love to be a point guard and have my coach tell me those things. He was in a great mindset. He is rarely emotional, but you could physically see it at the start of the game. Rajon wanted to win this game."

Rondo registered all eight of his assists in the second half, putting up more assists after halftime than Orlando registered the entire game (7). Rondo added two steals to his stat line and finished with a plus-9 in the plus/minus category.

“I tried to be aggressive," said Rondo. "[The Magic] picked up a couple of charges on me, but Doc told me to keep attacking, which I did. I tried to stay aggressive and get to the bonus, and that's what I did... Defensively, we got stops tonight. They took contested twos. When they did take 3-pointers, they had a hand in their face."

Rondo did register a team- and season-high eight turnovers as Boston committed a season-worst 20 turnovers, but the Celtics overcame those bad plays to improve to 13-1 overall on the road this season.