Trail Blazers' Overtime Win Over Grizzlies Shows What They're Trying to Build

The Blazers are 1-0 in In-Season Tournament play and winners of three straight.

PORTLAND, Ore. — The vibes haven't been this good in almost exactly a year.

364 days ago, a Jerami Grant game-winner in Phoenix launched a thousand postgame interview memes. Things were never that good again in a Trail Blazers season that quickly went sideways. But for that short time in early November, the out-of-nowhere success story was what the Blazers were in the NBA.

Thanks to the In-Season Tournament, that's what the Blazers are again, at this second. They're young, they're rebuilding, they're missing their starting backcourt. They're also winners of three in a row after outdueling the spiraling Memphis Grizzlies in overtime on Friday night. They're already more than 10 percent of the way to their over/under for the season. They're undefeated in the games played on the technicolor courts the NBA is telling us matter more than the other regular-season games.

More than that, they're making good on all of Chauncey Billups' promises over the past three years of building an identity and competing.