Celtics guard Derrick White (No. 9) drives to the basket against the Grizzlies during the first quarter of Wednesday night's game at TD Garden.
Celtics guard Derrick White (No. 9) drives to the basket against the Grizzlies during the first quarter of Wednesday night's game at TD Garden.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
Derrick White and Payton Pritchard are very accurate shooters who scuffled through the first 12 games of this season. They entered Wednesday night’s game against the Grizzlies shooting 28 and 25.6 percent from the 3-point line, respectively.
There have been times in recent weeks when both passed up open looks, seemingly aware of their struggles. Other times, misses left them visibly frustrated.
But both remained confident that their downturns would be a blip rather than the start of a lingering trend. And they took a promising step vs. the Grizzlies, when they combined to hit 8 of 16 3-pointers and were the Celtics’ top scorers in their 131-95 romp against the Grizzlies.
Pritchard finished with 24 points and White had 20 in just 26 minutes. The Celtics (6-7) made 21 of 51 as a team and pummeled the Grizzlies with 34 second-chance points. Jaren Jackson Jr. had 18 points for injury-ravaged Memphis, which was missing four top rotation players, including star guard Ja Morant (ankle). Memphis made just 10 of 43 3-pointers.
Jordan Walsh, who started the second half in place of Josh Minott against the 76ers Tuesday and gave the Celtics a defensive lift, was in the starting lineup Wednesday. He attacked for a layup to spark a rare hot start for the Celtics, who made their first five shots and pushed to a 22-10 lead.
In the 102-100 loss to the 76ers, White had one disheartening miss from the corner in which he had time to set his feet and measure the opportunity. A similar chance arrived in the first quarter against the Grizzlies, but this one was true, part of his 3 for 5 start from beyond the arc. Pritchard, meanwhile, was 2 for 4.
If one has a sustained hot streak, it would be enough to flip a looming loss or two into a win. If they heat up simultaneously, it could really ignite the Celtics. But this first half was at least a start.
The Celtics took a 37-26 lead on a Neemias Queta 3-point play with 11:43 left before their lone quiet stretch of the half arrived. Boston went nearly four minutes without a point, although the Grizzlies capitalized only marginally with an 8-0 burst.
If the lull was related to tired legs, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla did his best to combat that. Midway through the second quarter he had already used 12 players. Queta, who had 9 points and 6 rebounds in the first half, ended the mild drought with an alley-oop dunk from Pritchard, who followed with a step-back 3-pointer to create more separation, 42-38.
The longer the second quarter dragged on, the less interested the Grizzlies appeared to be in playing defense. On multiple possessions they simply stood and watched Celtics shooters catch the ball on the perimeter.
Brown hit a completely uncontested 3-pointer while trailing a play, White took advantage of the Grizzlies going under a screen against him and hit another, and in the final seconds Pritchard grabbed a defensive rebound and faced little resistance as he went end-to-end for a layup that gave Boston a 67-46 halftime lead.
The rare times the Celtics did miss, they usually found a way to get another chance. Pritchard hit two more third-quarter 3-pointers following offensive rebounds, and Boston’s lead swelled to 31.
Sam Hauser was the only Celtics shooter who did not really take part in the barrage. But after an 0 for 6 start he hit a 32-footer with the shot clock running down in the final minute of the third, putting his arms in the air afterward as if to say it was about time.
At the other end, the Grizzlies started just 6 for 31 from long range. They missed some clean early looks, but those failures seemed to wear on them as the game progressed.
The lopsided score allowed Mazzulla to rest his stars for most of the fourth quarter, a welcome respite following a grueling stretch.
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.