Semi Ojeleye the surprise star as Celtics belt Raptors, and other observations

Often this season, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been such dominant offensive players that they have guided the Celtics to wins without much help. Few teams have two players capable of these explosions, so Boston is fine to let these two young stars carry them.

But it also created some question about what would happen when their shots were not really falling. On Thursday night, both Brown and Tatum had subdued nights by their standards, and it did not matter, because their teammates sprayed 3-pointers from all angles and steered them to a 120-106 win.

Semi Ojeleye, getting a rare start, provided the most improbable lift, drilling 6 of 8 3-pointers en route to a career-high 24 points. Payton Pritchard hit 6 of 8 3-pointers and scored 20 points, and Kemba Walker was 5 for 7 from beyond the arc and scored 20. Tatum and Brown combined to make just 8 of 27 shots, but they were efficient distributors, combining for 19 assists.

Observations from the game:

▪ It hasn’t been glaring, but Tatum is quietly in a bit of a shooting slump. He has connected on 50 percent of his shots just once in nine games since being sidelined with COVID-19 and after going 5 for 13 on Thursday is now 20 for 55 over his last three.

▪ The Celtics have put themselves in some tough situations this year when putting teams into the free-throw penalty early, but in the fourth quarter Thursday they were the benefactors. The Raptors had sliced a 15-point deficit to 5 before Boston entered the free-throw penalty with 6:21 left. Brown quickly hit four of them to stretch the lead back out.

▪ The Celtics held a 17-0 edge in second-chance points.

▪ With Robert Williams out because of a sore hip, Brad Stevens inserted Ojeleye into the starting lineup in place of Tristan Thompson so the Celtics would have a backup center, and Ojeleye took advantage of the chance. Brown found him for an easy basket inside in the opening minute, and that may have given Ojeleye the early confidence boost he needed. He drilled a 3 from the right arc a minute later before draining one from the left corner that staked Boston to a 12-2 lead. His next three first-half 3-pointers all came from the corners, and the Celtics on the bench giddily slapped the padded barrier near their bench after each one.

▪ Ojeleye had been just 3 for 14 on 3-pointers over Boston’s last six games, and he nearly doubled that total in the first half, with five.

▪ The Celtics’ first-half lead felt a bit unstable at times, however. They were pouring in 3-pointers from all angles while the Raptors started the game by missing their first six shots from beyond the arc, but Toronto lingered anyway because its paint attack was formidable. The Raptors used a mixture of strong drives and gentle floaters to leave Boston’s defense off balance, as they connected on 18 of 27 first-half 2-point shots.

▪ Kemba Walker had a promising start, drilling a pair of first-quarter 3-pointers, but his trips inside the arc remained unsteady. He had his first two attempts blocked and went 0 for 4 on 2-point shots in the first half. He did draw a pair of shooting fouls and seems to be moving well, which is at least promising for the Celtics.

▪ The Celtics gobbled up eight offensive rebounds in the opening half, with Thompson clearing space to grab four of them.

▪ Assist totals always look better when 3-pointers happen to go in, and the Celtics certainly had them go in, but Boston’s offense appeared crisp regardless, with Brown and Tatum spraying passes to shooters during their otherwise quiet offensive first halves. The two combined for 13 assists in the first half, and the Celtics had 16 on 21 made baskets.

▪ Any concerns the Celtics’ had that unsustainably hot 3-point shooting would regress to the mean in the third quarter were quickly wiped away, thanks to the same three players who carried them from beyond the arc at the start. Over a stretch of less than two minutes, Ojeleye added another 3 from the left corner, Pritchard hit one from the right corner, and then Walker banked one in from the right arc. At that point, those three players had combined to drill 15 of 18 3-point attempts.

▪ Walker’s three gave Boston an 86-71 lead with 5:53 left in the third quarter. Then Boston’s offense stalled, scoring just 2 points over the rest of the quarter. The only thing that saved them after several sloppy sequences was that Toronto had plenty of its own, including missing three layups in a row at one point. So the Celtics were able to take an 88-80 lead to the fourth despite the massive drought.

Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @adamhimmelsbach.