Less than a minute after the Celtics faced the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday, Jrue Holiday received a pass from Derrick White behind the 3-point line and watched as Jaren Jackson Jr. made a feeble attempt to tie the game. Jackson barely left the key behind.

That’s when Holiday knew something was wrong. The Grizzlies’ game plan was to allow Holiday to shoot as many open three-pointers as he wanted in the hopes that he would both miss more shots than he made and also turn away shot attempts from his higher-scoring teammates.

The plan worked perfectly for the Grizzlies, who were looking for their first win in Boston in 11 years. That defensive approach not only disrupted the Celtics, who looked exhausted after Friday’s matchup with the Bucks, but also put unusual pressure on Holiday, who is the Celtics’ sixth-leading scorer and has struggled from the 3-point line this season .

The Celtics recovered from their offensive lull and took a 4-point lead with nine minutes left, but had no choice as Jackson Jr. and Ja Morant led the Grizzlies to a late comeback and a 127-121 victory.

Jackson scored 14 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, including 11 in a row. Morant led Memphis with 32 points, including four 3-pointers. He had scored 15 goals in his last 13 games.

Meanwhile, Holiday attempted a career-high 17 3-pointers and only made four. He made just eight of 26 shots, his most attempts as a Celtic.

“It didn’t surprise me,” Holiday said. “I feel like every team lets me shoot, even (Friday). Obviously there’s Jayson (Tatum) and Jaylen (Brown) who can work their way into the paint, and I’m usually on the receiving end of that. (Saturday) some of them went in, some of them didn’t.”

Holiday surpassed his career high with 3-point attempts (13) in the third quarter. He attempted 17 shots in the first half, while Tatum and Brown combined for 15 shots. The Grizzlies decided that if the Celtics were going to shoot threes, it would be Holiday, who is shooting 32.8 percent this season.

“As far as strategy goes for Jrue, it’s a bold strategy,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “He’s an All-Star. He shoots over 40 percent from three (in two years with the Celtics). It’s risky. I thought he handled it great.

“We want him to take every shot he has and I think that’s a big gift because now we’ll see it again and it’ll be great for us. “I’m really glad they did that for us did, and I think his teammates did a great job of getting him to shoot.”

While the rested Grizzlies scored at will in the game and ran to the transition buckets, Mazzulla changed the pace by using Kristaps Porzingis and Neemias Queta in the same lineup. The result was more rim protection, and the Celtics rallied from a 12-point deficit midway through the third quarter to take a 103-99 lead on a 3-point play by Holiday with 9 minutes, 20 seconds left.

The Celtics then missed numerous opportunities to extend the lead, and Jackson Jr. went to work with various jump hooks and short jumpers. The Grizzlies went on a 10-0 run to take the lead for good, and the Celtics missed a number of open looks that could have made the game interesting. They only had a little left in the tank.

Brown had 22 points on 10-for-14 shooting but committed 5 turnovers. Tatum, who appeared to have tweaked his ankle during a fourth-quarter drive, scored 17, but on 6-for-21 shooting and 1 of 10 from the 3-point line. The Celtics made 60 3-pointers – one fewer than their season high – but managed only 18. Tatum, Holiday and Porzingis combined to go 8-for-37.

“You have to give Memphis credit: They pushed, they were physical and the referees let it go, so credit to them,” Brown said. “We weren’t strong enough with the basketball. I was way too loose and that was my fault, too many ball losses. We have to be better. We played (Friday) and they just piled on the pressure and we didn’t play to the level we needed to.”

The main storyline leading up to tipoff was the return of Marcus Smart, who was playing his first game at TD Garden as an opposing player. He came off the bench for Memphis and scored 3 points on 1-for-11 shooting. When he entered the game at the start of the first period, he received a standing ovation from the TD Garden crowd.

“It was weird,” Brown said of seeing Smart in a Memphis uniform. “Marcus is a family member at this point. Seeing him and congratulating him on starting his family was great. That’s all good, but it was definitely good to see him.”

Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.