BOSTON -- Rajon Rondo has made dozens of last-second dashes to the basket.

This time, he went in the opposite direction.

The Celtics point guard ran into the backcourt, grabbing the inbounds pass in stride, avoiding a foul and dribbling out the final 3.4 seconds to clinch Boston's 92-91 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night in the opener of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

"I feel like I could out-quick him. That's what I did," Rondo said. "We knew they had a foul to give. I told Doc (Rivers) to get me the ball and I could use my speed."

Rondo had 17 assists, 13 points and 12 rebounds for his eighth career playoff triple-double. He had six points, five assists and four rebounds in the fourth quarter, when the Celtics went on a 23-7 run to turn a double-digit deficit into a six-point lead with 78 seconds to play.

"He's an amazing player. He really is," Sixers coach Doug Collins said. "He takes that ball wherever he wants to take it on the floor."

Kevin Garnett scored 29 points -- his most in the regular or postseason this year -- and added 11 rebounds to help Boston maintain home-court advantage in the best-of-seven, second-round series. Game 2 is Monday night in Boston before the series shifts to Philadelphia for Games 3 and 4.

"If you've watched us all season, we're not going to drop our heads," Collins said. "We live to come back and fight just as hard in Game 2, at least as long as I'm the coach."

Andre Iguodala scored 19 points and Evan Turner had 16 with 10 rebounds for Philadelphia, which advanced to the second round for the first time since 2003 by beating East No. 1 seed Chicago. But Turner couldn't catch Rondo in the final seconds when Philadelphia had a foul to give.

"Rondo just leaps out. That's the last thing on your mind -- him going into our side of the court," Iguodala said. "You could have a turnover down there. It's a gamble, but it's a good play. ... We could have done a better job scoping it out."