with scores of 80 and 69 not out in the first warm-up ag

INDIANAPOLIS -- Isaiah Thomas fought through an off-shooting night, then came through for the Boston Celtics when it matter most.Thomas scored 23 points, including Bostons final eight, to lead the visiting Celtics past the Indiana Pacers 105-99 on Saturday night.Isaiah did a lot for our team tonight even though he wasnt shooting well, Avery Bradley said of his teammates 12-point fourth quarter. Thats what the game is all about, the fourth quarter.Thomas had just four points through 34 minutes before scoring 19 over the final 14 minutes. He hit several clutch shots to keep Indiana at bay and sealed the win at the foul line in the final 30 seconds.With all-star Paul George sitting out the game with a sprained left ankle, the Pacers needed the help Thomas was affording them. After starting hot, the Pacers looked as if they wouldnt miss their leading scorer.In the first half, Indiana was crisp on offense, moving the ball, spacing the floor and getting the shots they wanted. But after halftime, they cooled off from the field and looked scattered at times on both ends of the floor.Boston lingered, and all they needed was Thomas to get involved.With his team struggling to seize control of a tight contest, Thomas surged in the fourth quarter. Nursing a 91-89 lead with 4:04 left, Thomas calmly hit a floater in the lane. After Monta Ellis hit a free throw to pull Indiana within 97-94 with 1:31 left, Thomas hit a pair of free throws, scored on a fastbreak layup with a minute left, and then added four free throws to seal Bostons second road win of the year.Pacers coach Nate McMillan said his team didnt challenge Boston in the final minutes to play to Indianas strengths.We want to make teams defend, get to our second, third, fourth option, McMillen said. You dont win games when you dont make plays down the stretch.Kelly Olynyk scored 16 for the Celtics, who were playing the first of two straight road games. Amir Johnson scored 14 and grabbed nine rebounds, while Bradley had 13 points and five assists.Jeff Teague led Indiana with 20 points and 4 assists. Myles Turner scored 17 and had 8 rebounds. Ellis notched 15 points in the Pacers first home loss of the season.TIP-INSBoston: Al Horford sat out for the fifth straight game due to NBA concussion protocol but did travel with the team on its two-game road trip ... Saturdays win was Bostons second in a row after losing three straight. ... Terry Rozier had a career-high 11 points. ... Isaiah Thomas went 14-for-15 from the foul line.Indiana: Rodney Stuckey sat out for the ninth time in 10 games with a strained right hamstring. ... The Pacers honored their teams of the 1960s during halftime. This season marks the 50th anniversary of the Pacers franchise. ... After hitting 13 of their first 23 shots in the first quarter, the Pacers shot just 36.5 percent over the final three quarters. ... Indiana was held to less than 100 points for just the second time this season.PG SITS BUT SPEAKSGeorge offered his assessment of the teams disappointing loss at home. It was really frustrating, especially at home against a good team, he said of sitting out the game Saturday. I thought our problems were much of the same thing. We were real stagnant on offense once again.YOUNG SPARKJames Young got hot at different junctures of Saturdays game and proved to be a key in Bostons win. He scored 12 points in 16 minutes off the bench on 5-of-6 shooting. In his five appearances before Saturday, Young hadnt scored in the 18 minutes of action hed seen. His dunk and 3-pointer in the final 30 seconds of the third quarter helped Boston take a 79-76 lead into the final period.UP NEXT:Boston: visits New Orleans on Monday to complete a 2-game road trip.Indiana: is home against Orlando on Monday in the second of four straight home games. Sandy Koufax Youth Jersey . 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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. Babe Herman Womens Jersey . A statement from the worlds top-ranked player says all checks "were satisfactory and showed positive evolution" regarding the injury, which contributed to his loss to Stanislas Wawrinka in the final in Melbourne. The merits, or otherwise, of putting cricketers through military-style boot camps have been debated at length over the years. In 2010-11, James Anderson emerged from Englands camp in Bavaria with a broken rib, courtesy of a boxing match with the squads Terminator lookalike, Chris Tremlett.And four years prior to that, Shane Warne famously spat his dummy straight in the face of Australias then-coach, John Buchanan, after being subjected to three days in the Queensland jungle ahead of the 2006-07 Ashes. Midway through that trip (which led, coincidentally or otherwise, to a 5-0 series whitewash) he reportedly turned on his coach with the words: Im weak as piss, I hate your guts and I want to go home.Only time (and, perhaps, a few reveal-all autobiographies) will tell how some of the less naturally compliant members of Pakistans Test squad have taken to the events of the past few months, in which their preparations for a seminal tour of England have included beastings at the countrys Military Academy at Abbottabad, as well as intensive skills and acclimatisation camps in both Lahore and Hampshire.But on the opening day of the first Test at Lords, and in the captains maiden first-class innings on the most famous ground in England, Misbah-ul-Haq not only gave incontrovertible evidence of the benefits of such exhaustive preparations, he even displayed enough surplus energy to drop to his hands and knees after 154 balls of stereotypically frill-free accumulation, and reel off ten press-ups in tribute to the men who had helped make his innings possible.That was my promise to the army guys, Misbah said afterwards. We did a camp in Abbottabad before the skill camp in Lahore, and we used to do an honour code every time, we just stepped into the ground and did ten push-ups. And I promised them, if ever I score a hundred, I will definitely do that to remind you that we were there.He did admit, on the sly, that his drill sergeant might well have sent him back to do another set of ten, given that his arms were too bent first time around, but Misbahs gleeful team-mates on the visitors balcony had no such qualms about the performance their skipper had just put in.At the age of 42 years and 47 days, and having had nothing but a diet of limited-overs cricket for Islamabad to sustain him since his victorious performances in their most recent Test series against England in November, Misbah confirmed the wisdom of his decision to stay at his countrys helm by leading from the front in the most inspirational manner possible.In so doing, he rolled back Father Time himself - who was watching benignly from the top of the Tavern stand clock - to enter the sort of rarefied atmosphere that players of his age, and in this era, are simply not meant to reach. Among his many accolades, hes the oldest player to score a Test hundred since Patsy Hendren in 1934, and the oldest to do so at Lords since Jack Hobbs and Warren Bardsley traded scores in the 1926 Ashes Test.Obviously when you are playing competitive cricket you dont just think about your age, he said, but if you think you are [still] competitive you can take the challenge of playing that game.dddddddddddd These records are always something special, and you are satisfied at getting these achievements, but the main thing is to perform for your team and country.He did that to supreme effect, and acknowledged the latter with a subtle salute towards the pavilion as he shuffled down the pitch after bringing up his three figures. That was for the flag, he later confirmed. And, notwithstanding the loss of two late wickets that allowed England to regain a measure of parity of a fascinating first day, his tenth Test hundred has established the sort of platform, at 282 for 6, that could yet allow Pakistans talented crop of bowlers to thrive in the second innings.Obviously you need at least 400, thats what we are looking forward to, Misbah said. We have to work hard tomorrow, so if we can bat more than a session we could really give us a big advantage. Here at Lords, the average score is around 400 in the first innings, so that could give us something to put pressure on England.Obviously, we worked really hard in terms of our fitness and skills, and in terms of acclimatising and coming here before [the start of the series], he added. All those aspects are really helping us. The batsmen are now adjusting to these conditions, they have got runs under their belts so they are confident, and now everyone is looking in good shape so that really helped us today.Despite the intensity of their preparations, Pakistans batsmen didnt all hit the ground running at the same speed - and it took a critical 148-run stand for the fifth wicket with Asad Shafiq to rescue their side from a post-lunch nadir of 134 for 4. Shafiq, who has been in promising form on the tour so far with scores of 80 and 69 not out in the first warm-up against Somerset, seemed set for a century until Chris Woakes disciplined line and waspish aggression caught him in two minds on 73.It would have been really nice for us if Asad and me could have batted the whole day, but then they just came back into the game so theres still a lot of hard work to do tomorrow, said Misbah. But Asad has been a star for us in the previous four or five years, hes the top player at No. 6, scoring so many hundreds and scoring consistently. Hes a special player and I think in future Pakistan will be looking to him.For the time being, however, Pakistan are looking no further than their leader, who will resume on the second morning on 110 not out, with a special place in history already confirmed following an innings that the man himself admitted was his best he has yet produced.Its a dream to play at Lords, and especially getting a hundred and my name on the honours board, he said. Its something special, and a century is always satisfying for a cricketer, but I rate this innings at the top in Test cricket especially. I am really happy about that. ' ' '