Randolph had 13 of his 27 points in the first quarter and finished with 11 rebounds, and the Grizzlies beat the Los Angeles Clippers 94-82 on Thursday night to pull within 2-1 in this first-round series.

“Zach was huge,” Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said. “He got started quickly. He had 18 at halftime, and that got us going and everyone else just flowed into that. I thought our defense, for the most part, was solid.”

Randolph hadn’t scored more than 13 in each of the first two games and had only 12 rebounds combined in Los Angeles. On Thursday, he looked much more like the All-Star who had 45 double-doubles this season, and he had six offensive rebounds after leading the NBA with 310 in the regular season.

The man known as “Z-Bo” was the last of the Grizzlies off the court in pregame warm-ups, and he had his shot working early.

“I definitely wanted to come out and be aggressive,” Randolph said. “They’ve been double-teaming, triple-teaming me. So just go fast, you know, hit a couple jump shots and open it up. Most definitely, I wanted to come out and be aggressive.”

The Grizzlies snapped the Clippers’ nine-game winning streak by outrebounding and dominating on second-chance points, the same things Los Angeles did so well on its home court to start the series in beating Memphis at its own style.

Game 4 is Saturday in Memphis.

Marc Gasol accepted his trophy as the NBA’s defensive player of the year before tipoff, then scored 16 points. Quincy Pondexter and Tony Allen had 13 each. Mike Conley was 1-of-9 but had 10 assists and no turnovers on a night when he was so sick he sipped on soda and didn’t talk much.

Pondexter said Gasol anchored the Grizzlies on the defensive end to help them return to “Grizzlies basketball,” and called Randolph and Gasol two of the best big men in the NBA.

“They are really great,” Pondexter said. “Marc is the best center in my eyes. Zach has the ability to play like the best power forward in the league. When those two guys are doing what they do, it’s hard to stop us.”

Blake Griffin scored 16 points for the Clippers. Matt Barnes had 12, Chauncey Billups 11, and Jamal Crawford and Caron Butler 10. Chris Paul had eight points on 4-of-11 shooting and added six assists.

“We didn’t make any adjustments,” Hollins said of defending Paul. “We just played better.”

Paul wasn’t happy with himself after he had five of the Clippers’ 18 turnovers. He also didn’t get to the free throw line.

“It’s uncharacteristic of us. You know I mean especially me,” Paul said. “I had five turnovers tonight, and our turnovers led to 17 of their points. They got offensive rebounds, things we hadn’t let them do in Game 1 and Game 2. We just got to be better.”

The game was a continuation of the roughness in Los Angeles with a flagrant foul, three technicals and a lot of whoofing along with a bear hug by Randolph after Barnes’ flagrant foul.

The Clippers had beaten the Grizzlies three straight in Memphis, including a Game 7 win in the first round last year. They also had won six of the previous seven in the series overall.

Memphis outrebounded the Clippers 45-33, including 17-5 on the offensive boards. That gave the Grizzlies a 22-4 edge in second-chance points, which was similar to what the Clippers did to Memphis in Game 1, when they held a 25-5 advantage. The Grizzlies also outscored Los Angeles 40-26 in the paint and led by as much as 16.

“That’s what they do,” Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. “We have been able to contain it pretty well for the first couple of games, but we just didn’t do a good enough job. We’ve got to find a way to get everybody in there.”

The Clippers last led 10-8 in the first quarter before the Grizzlies took control with Randolph hitting four of his first five shots and all five free throws for 13 points in the quarter.

They tried to make a run late in the third and into the fourth as they have so often to beat Memphis in this series. They got as close as 74-69 with 8:39 left on a pair of free throws by Barnes.

“He came out aggressive, and that’s what they needed,” Griffin said of Randolph.

Memphis answered with a 7-2 spurt to push the lead back to double digits on a reverse layup by Pondexter off an assist from Randolph. During the run, Paul stole the ball from Grizzlies guard Jerryd Bayless and passed to Eric Bledsoe for a 3 he missed. Gasol got the rebound.

The Grizzlies outscored the Clippers 23-20 in the first quarter and 24-19 in the second, taking a 47-39 lead into halftime. They hadn’t led by more than six in Los Angeles and were up by seven in the first quarter back on their own court. They pushed that to 12 in the second quarter.

Memphis’ lead grew to 14 a couple times in the third, the last at 68-54 on a pair of free throws by Pondexter with 1:22 left.

That’s when the Clippers went on a 10-2 run featuring back-to-back 3s by Crawford and then Lamar Odom. Ronny Turiaf dunked to pull the Clippers to 70-64 with 11:04 to go.

Pondexter then scored five points for Memphis as he got the rebound after he missed his second free throw attempt and put it back while being fouled by Barnes.

Pondexter added the free throw, pushing Memphis’ lead back up to double digits with 10:16 remaining.

Game notes

Randolph wound up part of a double-foul situation for a third straight game in this series with Griffin late in the game. … The Clippers hadn’t lost in Memphis since Game 5 last year in the playoffs and won 24 road games during the regular season. … The Grizzlies went 28-of-38 at the free throw line compared to 21-of-23 for the Clippers. …The Clippers’ 82 points were two shy of a franchise low in the postseason. … Pondexter had only five total points in the first two games of the series. … Paul had averaged 23.5 points in the first two games of the series.

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Reserves Jamal Crawford and Matt Barnes each scored 16 points, and the Clippers easily routed the Grizzlies 99-73 Monday night with Paul missing his first game this season because of a bruised right kneecap.

“Missing the best point guard in the world in Chris Paul, we all had to play collectively and step it up, and I thought we did a good job of that,” Crawford said.

The matchup between two of the best teams in the West wasn’t close after the first quarter. While Paul watched from the bench, the Grizzlies were without their leading scorer: Gay was excused for his grandmother’s funeral in Baltimore.

This also was the Clippers’ first trip to Memphis since they won Game 7 of their opening-round playoff series last May. All they did was match their largest margin of victory on the road this season while holding the Grizzles to a season-low in points and their worst field goal shooting percentage on their home court in franchise history.

“That’s why I said before the game that they’re the best team in the West, maybe the best team in the league right now,” Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said of the Clippers.

Eric Bledsoe, starting for Paul, had 14 points, and Blake Griffin scored 10. Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro was able to give nine players at least 17 minutes each before heading to Houston for the second half of a back-to-back Tuesday night.

“We want to be the best team we can, and that’s our goal as the season moves on,” Del Negro said. “I thought we were lacking a lot, but I thought we played well.”

Zach Randolph had 15 for Memphis, which lost its second straight blowout, after losing 104-83 at Dallas on Saturday night. Wayne Ellington added 11 in a rare start in place of Gay, and Darrell Arthur had 10 as the Grizzlies shot just 30.3 percent (27 of 89), a franchise-low at home. Randolph said they really missed Gay’s ability to drive and relieve pressure.

“They clogged up the paint on us, make us shoot from outside, make us pass the ball up because they’re doubling as soon as we catch it,” Randolph said. “They’re coming from every direction, and that makes us pass out to the perimeter.”

The Clippers had a 40-36 scoring edge in the paint as DeAndre Jordan and Griffin helped limit Randolph to 5-of-16 shooting and Marc Gasol to 4 of 13.

“That’s where most of their points were coming from since Rudy wasn’t playing,” Bledsoe said. “I think DJ and Blake, in taking Zach Randolph out of the game, that kind of stopped their offensive game.”

Both teams were coming off losses, but the Clippers responded much better to being without their point guard on the first night of back-to-back road games. The Clippers scored the first five points of the game and went on a 17-2 run in grabbing a 32-19 lead. When Memphis pulled to 36-30, the Clippers answered with a 17-4 spurt and led 53-34 at halftime.

Los Angeles got a big boost from its bench, which outscored Memphis 28-4 in the first half and finished with a 54-26 edge. The Clippers’ advantage was so big Griffin played only 25 minutes. The Grizzlies knew how good the Clippers have been on the bench and had their production written on the board in their locker room.

Memphis couldn’t match the Clippers’ intensity, and Hollins pointed out his Grizzlies couldn’t hit teammates for layups on the fast break or down in the post.

“That whole game summed up just that we weren’t competing on a high level,” Hollins said. “They came in here and wanted to show us, and they did.”

The Grizzlies brought back rookie Tony Wroten from Reno in the NBA D-League for depth. Hollins even joked before the game that he was unsure who he’d be subbing in since he started Ellington and Quincy Pondexter was out with an injured knee.

Memphis had its lowest scoring half this season in what was just part of an ugly night all around. The Grizzlies passed 20 points only in the fourth quarter (21) and were so sloppy that at one point in the first half Mike Conley stole the ball off Griffin’s pass only to hit Tony Allen in the face with a pass on the other end.

The Clippers didn’t ease up in the second half either, opening the third quarter with a 15-6 run. They pushed their lead to 16 points, 68-42, on a pair of free throws by Bledsoe with 4:03 left in the third, and Ryan Hollins’ alley-oop dunk with 2:41 gave the Clippers their biggest lead of the night, 95-68.

Game notes

After missing this game, Paul is day to day. … The Clippers also won by 26 Dec. 15 at Milwaukee. … The Clippers are 22-6 when their reserves outscore the opponent’s bench. … The Clippers now are 23-2 when leading after the first quarter. They came in second-best in the NBA in that category. … The Clippers’ largest road victory was by 28 on Nov. 6, 2009, at Golden State. … The Grizzlies’ previous low first half was 37 points Dec. 29 against Denver, and they had just 36 against Atlanta on Dec. 8 in the second half. … Memphis scored 80 twice previously this season, winning Dec. 17 against Chicago the last time.

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Mike Conley had 23 points and nine assists, and Allen had nine points and four of his five rebounds in the second half on Wednesday night to lead the Memphis Grizzlies to a 93-83 victory over the Boston Celtics. It was the fourth consecutive loss for Boston, which won its 17th NBA title with Allen in 2008.

“You come back to a team that you won a championship with, and there’s no greater feeling than coming back and getting that win,” Allen said. “Put all my feelings and emotions to the side and came out and did everything that Coach Lionel (Hollins) asked me to do.”

Rudy Gay scored 19 points for Memphis, which shot 61 percent from the floor — and 62.5 percent from 3-point range — in the first half. The Grizzlies led by 18 early in the fourth quarter, then made 8 of 11 free throws down the stretch after the Celtics made it a five-point game.

“Whatever we’re doing wrong, it’s not going to get fixed in a day,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. “That’s what happens when things aren’t going well: You’ve got to make them go well.”

Rivers was one of the Celtics that Allen sought out for a hug as the clock wound down. Afterward, in the visitors’ locker room, Allen was showing off a blood-stained Celtics uniform that he had worn in the NBA Finals; an equipment manager gave it to him.

“This is one of my jerseys they had. It almost brought tears to my eyes,” said Allen, who had played in Boston as an opponent only once before, in 2011.

“There’s still going to be one or two of those guys … I love them to death. That’s my family; like I said, it’s a brotherhood. … From the training camps in Maine to long seasons, getting the ring, raising the banner, the ring ceremony, all that. I just told them `Thanks for everything and good luck for the rest of the season.”

Paul Pierce scored 17 for Boston, but he had just one basket in the third quarter and none in the fourth while missing seven of his last eight shots.

Rajon Rondo had 11 points and 10 assists for the Celtics, who trailed by 79-61 after the opening basket of the fourth quarter but closed the gap to 83-78 with under 5 minutes to play on back-to-back 3-pointers from Jason Terry. Boston began fouling and the Grizzlies made their shots.

“We sit in here and we talk about being positive, don’t get our heads down,” Pierce said. “It’s just like any confident person: When things don’t go your way you feel the next thing is going to go your way, and that’s how this team feels.”

Memphis led by nine at the half and took a 75-59 lead after three quarters, then Marreese Speights hit a pair of baskets at the beginning of the fourth to give the Grizzlies a 79-61 lead. But Kevin Garnett scored eight points during a 17-4 run, and Boston made it 83-78 on Terry’s 3-pointers 46 seconds apart.

It was 85-78 with under 3 minutes to play when Garnett missed a pair of free throws and then committed a foul at the other end. The Celtics big man finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.

Avery Bradley returned from injuries to both shoulders for his first appearance of the season for the Celtics. He started and scored four points in 19:31. Rondo didn’t practice on Tuesday but played in his second straight after missing a game with bruised right hip and thigh.

Game notes

The Celtics lost three straight at the end of their four-game West Coast road trip — by an average of 23 points. … Garnett played in his 1,286th game, tying him with Sam Perkins for 14th on the NBA career list. … Boston rookie Jared Sullinger picked up three fouls in three minutes in the first half…. The Grizzlies had lost three of four after winning four in a row. … Memphis has forced at least 10 turnovers in 132 straight games, the longest active streak in the NBA. … Memphis reserve Jerryd Bayless sprained his left ankle in the first half and did not return. … Celtics rookie Fab Melo was in Boston to see a doctor after receiving a concussion when he ran into a hotel door. He expects to be back in Maine on Friday.

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