Less than 10 days after an “embarrassing” blowout loss in the Mile High City, the Portland Trail Blazers got some much-needed revenge against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday, beating Michael Malone's woefully depleted squad, 119-100.

The Blazers can only play who's in front of them and hardly need to apologize for one of their best offensive performances of the season. Portland posted a blistering 126.6 offensive rating against the Nuggets, raced out to 28 fast-break points and consistently passed up good shots for great ones in the half-court setting. Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum ripped nets en route to 57 total points and 10 made triples on 68.8% shooting. Portland played with consistent pace, aggression and movement, operating on offense pretty much exactly the way Chauncey Billups envisions.

Despite regularly taking advantage of countless Denver miscues with active hands and a greedy disposition, though, the Blazers weren't exactly airtight defensively. It's clear this game would've been much more competitive if reigning MVP Nikola Jokic hadn't been forced to sit for a third straight night with an injured wrist. The Nuggets, of course, were also without Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray.

Malone wasn't making excuses for Denver, though. The veteran coach called his team “selfish,” especially during a game-turning second-quarter run by the Blazers, and said he couldn't glean a single positive from the Nuggets' performance.

Point being, don't read too much into Tuesday's contest as it relates to Portland's standing in the Western Conference. Just the continuation of positive vibes stemming from an undefeated, 4-0 home stand is enough for a team that's clearly still finding its footing.

Besides, pretty much all Greg Brown III's coaches and teammates wanted to talk about after the game was his ridiculous between-the-legs dunk in garbage time anyway:

Brown's in-game Eastbay came with about 50 seconds left on the game clock and the score well out of reach, after he'd picked off a careless pass from Bol Bol. In terms of basketball etiquette, it wasn't exactly classy. But not even Billups seemed to mind the rookie flouting those manners.

“You can't expect Greg to know any of those type of things,” Billups said. “And obviously, that's what he does. That's what he does. I was happy for him, but as time goes on he'll kinda get to understand the unspoken rules in the NBA.”

Robert Covington admitted that Denver was probably “pissed off” by Brown's late-game highlight. And as surprising as it was for he and the Blazers, they weren't completely shocked.

“It shocked us but it didn't shock us, because he just saw for two hours. Then you come in and your first fast break you go between the legs,” Covington said of Brown. “You ain't warm, you ain't stretch for real. But he's a freak athlete, man.”

McCollum expressed the exact same sentiment.

“He's super athletic. He sat for two hours and dunked through his legs,” McCollum said. “That's impressive. That's very impressive.”

Brown hasn't played a single minute of competitive action for Portland this season. If the front office wasn't tasked with lowering Jody Allen's luxury tax bill by keeping an open roster spot, the teenage second-round pick would very likely be playing in the G League.

Still, another flash of Brown's mind-blowing explosiveness on the regular-season stage hints at what could be to come for Blazers down the line — and was the cherry on top of a positive, if mostly insignificant, win.