BOSTON -- A runaway start for the Boston Celtics turned into a tight finish.Al Horford led the Celtics early and late, with 26 points, eight rebounds and six blocked shots to lead Boston to a 97-92 win over the Sacramento Kings on Friday night.He just was aggressive. He knocked down his shots. He did what we needed him to do and he carried us tonight, said Isaiah Thomas, who scored 14 of his 20 points in the second half to help the Celtics hold off the Kings.Jae Crowder added 16 points and Avery Bradley had 15 points and nine assists for Boston, which needed a 10-0 run in the fourth quarter to pull away and finish off the Kings.Sacramento continued to scrap until the end. Horford helped seal it with six seconds left when he swatted away 3-point attempt by DeMarcus Cousins, then hit a pair of foul shots for Bostons final points.I know that he tried to draw something there. I just stayed solid and not let him get a shot off, Horford said. Im just trying to be active -- as active as I can be.Sacramento outrebounded Boston 51-44, but hurt itself in the final period with turnovers, missed shots and a technical foul called on Matt Barnes as Boston surged ahead.Cousins led Sacramento with 28 points and nine rebounds. Darren Collison and Rudy Gay scored 13 apiece for the Kings.Cousins is Cousins. Hes going to score, Boston coach Brad Stevens said. Hes to get 28 points or whatever he got, but you cant let those other guys have huge nights too.The Kings were playing for the first time since Monday. Sacramentos six-game road trip was interrupted when Wednesdays game at Philadelphia was postponed because of condensation on the floor.The layoff showed early as the Celtics went up by 13 points in the first period, but the Kings regrouped and rallied to tie it by the end of the quarter.Its almost like we have to get hit first for us to react. Its not good for us, Cousins said. Were in the situation where we have to come in and be aggressive every night. If we dont figure this out, were going to continue to have these kind of games and just another losing season.BIG ALIt was Horfords best game since leaving Atlanta to sign with Boston over the summer. His previous high for scoring with the Celtics was 20 points and he hadnt blocked more for Boston since getting four against Brooklyn in his Celtics debut.Hes all over the place. He covers a lot of ground. He calls out calls. I think hes a competitive guy and thats proved in his winning track record, Stevens said. One thing about Al -- hes always in the stands. His arms are always long. He takes up a lot of space and he reacts quickly to what is going on.SLOW-DOWN OFFENSEThe Kings had their chances to win in Boston for the first time since 2007. They didnt help themselves down the stretch, making just 6 of 23 in the fourth quarter and going without a field goal from Gays layup with 8:33 remaining until Gay hit a 3-pointer with 4:51 left to play pulled Sacramento within 84-81.We got off to a really slow start, Gay said. Theyre a good team but we shot ourselves in the foot today.BIG BENCHSacramento reserves outscored Bostons 33-12. Barnes led the Kings reserves with 12 points and sparking Sacramentos rally in the first quarter after the dreadful start.Their bench crushed us when they came in, Stevens said. I didnt think we responded to attacking them well or defending them well with their energy in that group.TIP-INSKings: The Kings closed the first quarter on a 13-0 run to tie it at 29-all entering the second period. ... ... Sacramento entered the game having lost eight straight visits to Boston.Celtics:Horford scored 12 of Bostons 29 points in the first quarter. ... Thomas led the Celtics in scoring the previous 14 straight games.UP NEXT:Kings: Continue a long road trip Sunday at New York.Celtics: At Philadelphia on Saturday in the first of three straight on the road NHL Jerseys Cheap . LOUIS -- Alexander Steen scored a power-play goal with 59. Cheap Jerseys Store . JOHNS, N. http://www.chinajerseysnhl.com/ . Louis Rams wide receiver Stedman Bailey last Sunday. The fine is the fourth this season for Goldson. He was fined $30,000 for a hit on the New York Jets Jeff Cumberland in Week 1. China Jerseys Wholesale . Both players have lower body injuries that will keep them out of the lineup until at least January 31, which is the first game they can be activated from IR. Jerseys From China . Once again Jordan Cieciwa (@FitCityJordan) and I (@LynchOnSports) go head to head in our picks. Last weekend at UFC Fight Night 32 my #TeamLynch got the best of #TeamJC by a score of 9-6. Let us know which side youre on for UFC 167 use the hashtag #TeamLynch or #TeamJC on Twitter. There were no double-bounce deliveries from Sri Lankas first ever chinaman bowler. Unlike the fictional Pradeep Mathew - he of that great Sri Lankan novel - Lakshan Sandakan didnt bowl the darter or a carrom-flick. As far as anyone can tell, there were no shady thugs watching on (save, of course, for those embedded in the nations eminent institutions). But until the real dark clouds claimed the skies over Pallekele, a wiry young bowler with cumulonimbus hair lit up Sri Lankas Test, and sent his team spiraling towards equilibrium - though not quite all the way.This is just like any other game, Rangana Herath had told him before the match. Just do what you usually do. What Sandakan usually does, it became clear, was attempt to kiss his way through the nerves. There were two smooches of the ball before his first delivery on Tuesday evening. Many more fluttering pecks followed, between deliveries. At other times, he kissed something in his shirt, and if he thought it could help him, might have planted kisses on the non-strikers cheek on his way into the crease. But, importantly, when the wrists got warm and the legs became steady, his deliveries ceased to merely kiss the pitch; they began to really bite.In his second over of the day, a googly ripped away from Adam Voges, who poked his bat in the other direction, and token appeals from behind the wicket were launched. Then, even when Voges divined the turns inclination, an inside edge was induced, though it didnt lob off the pad to be caught.The first Test wicket was a wrist-spin classic - ripping Mitchell Marshs body to the leg side, then breaking the ball just slightly the other way. The off stump lost its bail, and Australia their promising partnership - the best of the innings, with 60 runs between Marsh and Voges.Mitchell Marsh is a guy who can play the anchor role, Sandakan said after play. Its a big wicket. Dismissing him is special. I bowled a googly to the other batsman, Voges. When he got beaten I thought that I can take a wicket by mixing it up. I was able to fox Marsh and get his wicket.Soon, this 25-year-old fresher, who hadnt played for Sri Lanka A before this month, and had been express-delivered to the Test team from England, was the most menacing bowler in the opposition for several overs. The control was far from perfect, but his excitement had the Test twitching. Stock balls staarted to beat the inside edge, and googlies the outside.dddddddddddd Mitchell Starc edged one that turned away from him, and Steve OKeefe bunted a googly to short leg. On so many recent occasions, Sri Lanka have toiled against the opposition tail, but at Pallekele a strange new spinner helped close out the innings - though he will know that less generous pitches lie in wait in his future, as well as batsmen better-versed in the shapes his fingers make.For someone who, for now, relies on deception for his wickets, he was a little lighter on the trickery than a wrist spinner would usually be. He refused to appeal for lbws when he knew the batsman had hit it. Then, after play, when asked how many variations he has up his sleeve, he said he had four, when he could have said fourteen. Ive got the lissa, the leaper, the floater and baggage porter, he might have ventured. Left-arm wrist spinners are crickets tiniest subset. They seem to exist in a shrouded intersection between fact and fable. Why not ham it up a little, particularly if you have collected the best ever figures on debut, bettering Chuck Fleetwood-Smiths 4 for 64 in 1935?Sandakan has topped Sri Lankas first-class wicket-takers tally in two of the past three years, but the Test team has discovered him here almost by accident. He would not have been in the squad had Jeffrey Vandersay remained uninjured. He would not have played this match had Suranga Lakmals hamstring not packed up. Sri Lankas batting prospects are flimsy, and its fast bowlers almost as fragile as the egos of some administrators, but, in the spin stakes at least, Sri Lanka still have something resembling a production line. Vandersay awaits his Test turn, following a promising start in limited-overs cricket, and Tharindu Kaushal has been quietly refining his big offbreak in the months his doosra has hung suspended. Maybe it is on the wrists of these three spinners that the teams future will turn.Sri Lankas grip on this match remains tenuous. They are 80 behind, with nine second-innings wickets intact. They will hope to leave Australia with at least 150 to chase in the final innings, to give the bowler who has so far been a revelation even to his own team, a chance of springing another surprise. ' ' '