The Portland Trail Blazers had countless opportunities to squander yet another close game. Instead, they buckled down even harder when it mattered most, holding on for their first win away from home since November 12th.

The Blazers beat the Memphis Grizzlies 105-100 on Sunday at FedEx Forum, their second consecutive victory in wake of dropping the previous seven games.

Damian Lillard was outstanding again, following up his best outing of the season with another vintage performance. He dropped 32 points, five rebounds and five assists on the Grizzlies, completing a pair of four-point plays and spearheading Portland's offensive attack late. Norman Powell was the main beneficiary of Lillard's crunch-time playmaking, scoring five huge points in the closing minutes to send the Blazers to victory. But more than half of Powell's 28 points came in a crucial third quarter, helping Portland roar back from a tough start to the second half.

Chauncey Billups, unsurprisingly, was extremely pleased with his team's all-around effort and intensity on Sunday. What stood out most to the rookie coach, though, is how the Blazers kept their composure as the game's outcome hung in the balance.

“I thought it was incredible. I thought it was incredible,” Billups said of Portland's finish. “As we know [Memphis] is a really good team, and they've been good most of the year closing games. We were in a tough dogfight with them a couple days ago, and they closed it out and we didn't at the end. We just show great resolve this game. It could've went a lot of different ways, but we just kept fighting. We just kept fighting.”

It wasn't just Lillard and Powell who kept the Grizzlies, now 10-2 without Ja Morant this season, at bay in the clutch.

Nassir Little grabbed a pair of massive rebounds, one on the offensive end that led to a Jusuf Nurkic score and another defensively that came after Desmond Bane misfired on a game-tying three-point with under 10 seconds left. Robert Covington, active as ever since being demoted from the starting lineup, forced a key turnover on Jaren Jackson Jr. with 2:26 left.

All told, Portland outscored Memphis 15-11 in the last five minutes of Sunday's game. The Blazers shot 4-of-8 overall, 2-of-4 from three and 5-of-5 at the free throw line, grabbing two offensive rebounds and committing just a single turnover. The Grizzlies, on the other hand, went just 3-of-10 from the field over that timeframe, misfiring on all but one of their seven tries from beyond the arc.

Billups said it himself: This game could very well have ended differently. It's a testament to Portland's sharpening edge, budding continuity and much-improved physicality that it didn't.

Here's hoping the Blazers can manage that blend of composed aggression again in Tuesday's tilt with the New Orleans Pelicans, a golden opportunity to get their third road win of the season and put recent struggles further behind them.