PORTLAND, Ore. -- Damian Lillard will receive much of the credit, the huge headlines in print and online, the airtime on highlight reels, the buzz on social media.

The Portland Trail Blazers' star point guard will get all that shine because of his playoff career-high 32 points in Monday's 99-92 Game 4 comeback win over the Memphis Grizzlies, who now lead the first-round series 3-1 with Game 5 on Wednesday in Memphis.

In a win-or-go-on-vacation contest, Lillard offered up a not-so-subtle reminder of his abilities, which had rightly been doubted lately.

"He showed why he is one of the best point guards in this league," Trail Blazers forward Nicolas Batum said.

No doubt, Lillard was clutch, especially his go-ahead 3-pointer while being fouled by Tony Allen with 1 minute, 58 seconds left, a shot that caused the Moda Center crowd to erupt.

He made the ensuing free throw and his team, which trailed by 10 points with 8:48 left in the fourth quarter before closing the game on a 29-12 run, never trailed again.

"We just gave ourselves another chance to play," Lillard said.

In the end, that's all they wanted -- well, that and not to be swept. However, the key reason that the Trail Blazers' postseason will extend beyond Monday goes well beyond Lillard.

"The key -- as good as [Lillard] was, and he's a heck of a player -- [is] we've got serious problems right now with CJ McCollum," Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger said.

McCollum was one of the Trail Blazers' supporting cast who came up huge, finishing with 18 points off the bench, including 11 in the second half and, most importantly, a cold-blooded 3-pointer with 1:20 left after the Grizzlies had tied the score at 88-88.

"He is getting to the rim, to the rim, to the rim on us over and over and over," Joerger said. "He had another good game [Monday] and we have to do a better job of keeping in front of him."

According to ESPN Stats & Information data tracking, McCollum scored seven points on 3-of-3 shooting in clutch time (the final five minutes when the score is within five) despite logging just 15 minutes of playing time in those situations in his career prior to Monday night. (McCollum entered the game with seven points on 3-of-7 shooting in clutch time.)

"The first two games, I came out kind of shaky and played like a younger player, making mistakes and not making open shots," McCollum said.

"I just wanted to show my teammates that I could play in a big game and help them out. I was aggressive, trying to get to the cup."

The second-year guard's performance was even more crucial with Trail Blazers All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge struggling, hitting 6-of-22 from the field (1-of-11 in the second half).

Aldridge finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds in what could have been his final game as a Trail Blazer before the sought-after power forward hits free agency this summer, but his struggles throughout left his team in desperate need of help.

That assistance came in the form of not only McCollum, but third-year center Meyers Leonard, who scored 13 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, had two assists and no turnovers in 35 minutes off the bench.

Leonard also gave the team a huge spark on defense by giving Grizzlies center Marc Gasol just enough trouble on that end to give the Trail Blazers a chance.

"Our bench, CJ and Meyers really had an impact on the game," Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts said.

Stotts noted how even though Leonard didn't score in the second half, his abilities as a 3-point shooter stretched the Grizzlies' defense and allowed for the Trail Blazers guards (namely Lillard and McCollum) to attack the paint and score.

Leonard was all smiles after.

"Amazing! It felt amazing! No one wants to get swept, obviously," he said. "Not only that, now we've got some momentum. We are taking this game by game. We are going to go to Memphis and try to get one. Then, hopefully, back here for Game 6."

Of course, everything that the Trail Blazers achieved comes with an asterisk because Grizzlies star point guard Mike Conley was absent with a facial fracture that he suffered in Game 3.

Conley's absence certainly helped Lillard, who had struggled mightily against the Grizzlies guard.

With Conley out, Lillard shot 56.3 percent (9-of-16) when Beno Udrih and Nick Calathes were his primary defenders in Game 4.

That duo guarded Lillard on 61 percent of his plays, something they did just 18 percent of the time in Games 1-3 when Lillard shot 35.2 percent from the field.

And even though Conley was out, the Trail Blazers still struggled for much of the second half, including being outscored 27-13 in the third quarter.

In fact, by the time the Grizzlies led by 10 with about nine minutes left, the Trail Blazers were 5-of-25 from the field in the second half, and Aldridge had missed nine straight shots.

Everything looked pretty bleak.

But they weren't ready for the offseason just yet.

The Trail Blazers outscored the Grizzlies 22-9 on second-chance points after being outscored by 13 in the first three games of the series, including when they failed to register a single point in that category in Game 3.

And Memphis scored just 48 points in the first half after setting a franchise playoff record for points in half by scoring 62 before intermission in Game 3.

In all, the Trail Blazers played like their season was on the line, as it obviously was.

"We stopped competing," Gasol said of the end of the game. "We tried to trade buckets with them, and we played a little bit too fast."

Of course, no team has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit, and the Trail Blazers face a tall task of sneaking out of Memphis with a win on Wednesday. No doubt the FedExForum will be loud and nasty.

But with Conley sidelined indefinitely, the series is, at the very least, a little more interesting.

It's a little more interesting if only because the Trail Blazers now know they can finally beat a team that had beaten it seven straight times this season and 12 of the past 13 overall, if only because they now know the Grizzlies can, in fact, bleed.