So this is how the Celtics look when their three championship-winning headliners all are clicking.
Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard scored 19 or more points in the same game for the first time this season Wednesday night at TD Garden. The result: a 131-95 dismantling of the visiting Grizzlies that improved Boston’s record to 6-7.
The Celtics got 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting from Brown, 20 on 6-of-11 from White and 24 on 8-of-15 from Pritchard, who put together their most complete performance of the season against a nosediving Memphis team that was playing without mercurial star point guard Ja Morant and starting center Zach Edey.
The trio of returning regulars combined to shoot 10-for-21 from 3-point range, lifting a revamped offense that’s struggled to replicate the shooting efficiency of previous Celtics teams.
Brown is well above his typical pace in most scoring and shooting metrics through 13 games, but White and Prichard have been far less consistent as shooters — especially from 3-point range, where they entered Wednesday with a combined success rate of 26.9%. As a team, Boston came in shooting 44.4% overall (24th in the NBA) and 32.8% from deep (27th).
The Celtics made 50.5% of their field goals and a season-best 41.2% of their threes against the Grizzlies. This season, Joe Mazzulla’s squad is 4-0 when it shoots better than 36% from beyond the arc and 2-7 when it doesn’t.
“We made shots,” Mazzulla said. “… I thought we’ve been getting really good looks and playing good offense, just not seeing the result. So I think the process has been there. Tonight, you kind of saw the result of that. But we’ve got to keep that up every night, and we’ve got to continue to execute to find good looks.”
Boston controlled play throughout the first quarter, building an early 12-point lead while shooting better than 50% from the field and 46% from three. White spearheaded that hot start with 10 first-quarter points on five shots — encouraging efficiency from a player who’d shot above 40% in just two games this season.
Memphis rallied late in the first and trailed by five midway through the second, but Boston dominated the final five minutes before halftime, sprinting into the break with a 23-7 run. Brown scored 12 of those points, and Pritchard capped the onslaught with a high-speed coast-to-coast layup that made it 67-46 with 1.2 seconds left in the half.
Another first-half standout: backup big man Luka Garza, who went 2-for-3 from 3-point range and grabbed three offensive rebounds. He finished with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting and seven boards to reach double figures for the fourth time this season.
“I think the last three games, he’s played some inspired basketball,” Mazzulla said. “He has a special gift to be able to play just harder than everybody else on the floor. He’s got to keep that up for us.”
Memphis never threatened after halftime. The Celtics built a 31-point third-quarter lead and waltzed to a 36-point victory, consistently generating and capitalizing on open looks from the perimeter. The 131 points were Boston’s second-highest total of the season, and its 34 assists were a new season high.
“The only way you can get assists is if you make a basket,” Mazzulla said. “We were able to make some baskets. I think we’ve been playing really good basketball even when we haven’t been getting the shooting percentages in that, so tonight, our assists were up because we finally made some. We’ve just got to keep playing the right way.”
Pritchard was the last Boston starter to be lifted, subbing out for two-way player Ron Harper Jr. with 4:16 remaining. The Celtics outscored the Grizzlies by 42 points across Pritchard’s 30 minutes, the best mark of his career.
Celtics guard Anfernee Simons (4) shoots against Memphis Grizzlies forward Santi Aldama during the first half of an NBA game Wednesday in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
It was a resurgent outing from the reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year, who was held to five points in each of Boston’s previous two games. Brown and White also bounced back from the late-game miscues that doomed the Celtics in a 102-100 loss at Philadelphia 24 hours earlier (the former was beaten for a go-ahead putback; the latter rushed a near-halfcourt heave in the final seconds)
“Ending this little stretch with a bounce-back win is important for our team,” Mazzulla said.
The Celtics, who have played three back-to-backs and have not had more than one day off between games since the season began, now will be off until Sunday, when the Los Angeles Clippers visit TD Garden for a 3:30 p.m. tipoff.
Other observations:
— Jordan Walsh, moved into the starting lineup for the first time this season after impressing off the bench in the previous four games, played competitive defense against the much larger Jaren Jackson Jr., forcing the Grizzlies big man into two offensive fouls in the second quarter. Walsh did encounter some of his own fouling issues, which limited him to 18 minutes, but Mazzulla said he liked his physicality.
Josh Minott, whom Walsh replaced in the top unit, played 22 minutes off the bench and finished with nine points, five rebounds and one block.
Payton Pritchard (11) of the Boston Celtics passes away from Jock Landale (31) and Olivier-Maxence Prosper (18) of the Memphis Grizzlies. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
— Mazzulla went deeper into his bench than he has in most games this season, giving first-half minutes to 12 different players. Hugo Gonzalez saw the least action of those 12, playing eight mostly garbage-time minutes after spraining his ankle one night earlier in Philadelphia.
Ex-Grizzlies big man Xavier Tillman was the only Celtics player who did not see action.
— White played most of the game with a swollen upper lip after taking a shot to the face during the first quarter. Those types of injuries have been commonplace for the veteran guard, who famously shattered his front teeth on the Garden parquet during Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals.