BOSTON — Rajon Rondo’s miserable March is over.

The Celtics’ point guard had 16 points and 13 assists Tuesday night to lead Boston to a 99-82 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers and help the defending conference champions reclaim the second-best playoff position in the East.

“He’s getting himself ready,” Celtics Coach Doc Rivers said. “You can see what they’re all doing; they’re sharpening their tools. They know where they’re at.”

The Celtics and Heat are tied at 54-23 with four games left in the regular season, including one head-to-head matchup in Miami on Sunday. The Celtics would win the tiebreaker because they beat Miami in their first three meetings.

“We want all these games,” said Kevin Garnett, who scored 14 points. “Playoffs is like the main course. This will definitely be an appetizer.”

Reserve Evan Turner scored 21, two points short of his career high, for the Sixers, who clinched a playoff berth Friday but could still finish anywhere from fifth to seventh in the East. They ended the night in sixth, four games behind Atlanta and a half-game ahead of New York.

“When we play a team like this, I told our guys we want to keep growing every single game,” Sixers Coach Doug Collins said. “That’s why coming down this stretch these games give us a blueprint on what we have to do to beat these teams.”

Rondo started the season on a torrid passing pace, averaging 15 assists over Boston’s first 10 games, including a season-high 24 in the third game of the year. He failed to reach 10 assists only 11 times heading into March, not counting injuries; he matched that in the past month alone, including eight straight games.

From March 6 to March 27, when he sat out to rest a strained right pinky, Rondo also shot 34 percent from the field, averaged seven points and 7.4 assists, and the Celtics went 5-6.

But Rondo is back on track, reaching double digits in assists or rebounds in four straight games after failing to do so a dozen times in the 14 games before that.

“I wouldn’t say I’m feeling 100 percent but I’m doing OK,” Rondo said. “Tonight was a good test for us. That might be a first-round (opponent) and we did a good job of making a little statement that it’s going to be hard to beat us.”

Rondo added four rebounds, shot 6 of 14 and even made all four free throws. Paul Pierce scored 18 points, Garnett had 14 and Ray Allen 13 for Boston, which is 8-8 in the past month.

“Rondo is once again leading their team,” Collins said. “When they play like that, it should make Doc smile because they’re one of the best teams in the league.”

Nenad Krstic of Boston scored eight points in 18 minutes after missing two games with a bruised right knee.