He allowed Jrue Holiday, who is struggling from the 3-point line this season, to shoot open threes while the Grizzlies packed the paint and prevented Kristaps Porzingis from getting to his preferred spot at the top of the key.

Holiday attempted a career-high 17 3-pointers, making four. And his 3-point percent dipped to 32.8 percent, far below his average of 37 percent. One of the Celtics’ biggest strengths is they could fill the floor with shooters, players with the potential to knock down 3-pointers and require defensive attention at all times. And while Holiday is considered one of those shooters, the Grizzlies viewed him as a potential weakness and took a 12-point lead into halftime because he attempted 34 percent of the Celtics’ shots. Add to Holiday’s subpar 3-point shooting a combined 4-for-17 clip in the first half from Jayson Tatum and Porzingis, and the Celtics’ offense was sputtering.

Adjustments were made in the second half with Holiday taking only 16 percent of the Celtics’ shots, but Tatum and Porzingis were already struggling and Boston couldn’t mount a late rally as fatigue and erratic shooting took over.

“I just think they had a specific game plan, which caught us off guard, of course,” Porzingis said. “That’s how it is. Teams want to throw all kinds of crazy stuff at us to try to rob a game. Good game plan. Honestly, we didn’t make normal shots and it caught us off guard a little bit. And our percentages were not close to our average and even through the tough battle we had and we came back and we were right there, we weren’t able to come back.”

The question is whether Jenkins’ strategy is a one-time concoction or a glimpse of game plans to come against the Celtics, who are leading the NBA with 51.4 3-pointers attempted per game. That’s nearly eight more than the next-highest team, the Bulls (43.5).

The Celtics have been wildly successful because of their 3-point shooting ability and filling the floor with shooters make them almost impossible to guard. Only Luke Kornet, Neemias Queta and Xavier Tillman are players who don’t shoot threes.

But Jenkins’s strategy has definitely forced the Celtics to think about alternatives over the past few days. While the Celtics are leading the league attempts, they are 13th in percentage entering Tuesday’s games.

And while Payton Pritchard (43 percent) and Al Horford (41.4) have flourished beyond the arc, the remaining Celtics shooters have experienced droughts. Jaylen Brown’s 34 percent clip is below his career average of 36.3.  Tatum worked on his release and mechanics during the offseason but has experienced peaks and valleys from beyond the arc. He’s 12 for his past 43 and had games of 0 for 10 and 1 for 10 in the past two weeks.

Derrick White (10 for his past 33) is in the middle of a 3-point slump. So perhaps it was just the perfect time to press the Celtics on their 3-point shooting ability, especially coming off such a physical game against the Milwaukee Bucks.

“You’re going to see everything,” Pritchard said of the opposing game plans. “Teams are going to try everything to try to stop us and we’re going to figure out how to keep moving. We’re the best team in the NBA and we have to come out and show it every night. That’s got to be our mentality and try to take care of business.

“It’s good to see everything. It’s definitely interesting to see how different teams go through different game plans, but the good thing is it’s the regular season, so we learn from it. So we’re experienced in that area if they do it again and we’ll be ready to handle it.”