PORTLAND, Ore. -- The simple, white poster was taped to the wall along the path the Portland Trail Blazers take from their locker room to the court at Moda Center.

“The ’77 Championship Team started 0-2,” it stated in plain red text.

It aimed to offer a touch of hope for a team that had little of it entering Game 3 of its first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies here Saturday, even if that title team was the last (and only) Trail Blazers squad to overcome a 2-0 playoff deficit.

But now, after a 115-109 loss to the Grizzlies on Saturday, the Trail Blazers face reality.

They just aren’t good enough to beat the Grizzlies, and that was never more obvious than Game 3, when it seemed like everything lined up for the Trail Blazers to win.

Their crowd was fabulous, the kind of eardrum-splitting, momentum-shifting environment other NBA teams would give anything to call their own.

The party started when the video board showed Trail Blazers guard Wesley “Iron Man” Matthews donning a helmet from the superhero movie as he strolled through the tunnel, making his first return to the Moda Center since his Achilles injury in March.

It continued as Damian Lillard shook a two-game slump and made four of his first five shots, including an early, down-the-lane dunk followed by a wing 3-pointer.

Aiding the Trail Blazers' cause, Memphis reserve sparkplug Beno Udrih, who had been torching the Trail Blazers, was out with sprained right ankle. Then Grizzlies point guard Mike Conley left late in the third quarter after catching an elbow to the face from CJ McCollum.

With those two out, the Trail Blazers seemed to have even more of an edge -- and that’s not including the fact that their supporting cast finally offered a much-needed boost.

Let’s start with Nicolas Batum. After hitting four 3-pointers in the first two games, he sank 6 of 12 from long range in Game 3, tying a franchise record for most 3-pointers in a playoff game.

Then there was McCollum. The reserve guard dropped 26 points off the bench, the most by a Trail Blazers reserve during the postseason since 1985.

And now to LaMarcus Aldridge. The All-Star started 1-for-10 in the first half, but hit 5 of 8 in the second half, finishing with 21 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two blocks.

Oh, and Lillard finished with 22 points and nine assists, his first solid outing after a pair of no-shows to open the postseason.

But even after all that -- even after all the support from their home crowd, even after two key Grizzlies guards were sidelined, even after four players scored 20-plus points -- it wasn’t enough.

It wasn’t enough for the Trail Blazes in large part because with Conley sidelined, the Grizzlies never missed a beat. Reserve guard Nick Calathes stepped in and calmly ran the show, finishing with 13 points, four rebounds and three assists and no turnovers off the bench.

In all, the Grizzlies still led wire to wire, still led by double digits for much of the night (by as much as 14 points), still won for the 12th time in 13 games against the Trail Blazers.

It’s also the seventh straight time Memphis has beat Portland this season.

The Grizzlies are simply a bad matchup for the Trail Blazers, nothing more.

Arron Afflalo’s return from a shoulder injury did little to spark the Trail Blazers, mostly because he fouled out in 27 minutes, finishing with five points and six rebounds.

Saturday was the Trail Blazers’ best hope at making this series competitive, and with all the aforementioned advantages before them, they still came up short, failing to come any closer than when they trailed 94-91 with 2:23 left in the fourth.

“I thought it was going to be one of those games where we find a way to pull it out,” Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts said.

There never seemed to be any hope of that, because his team’s defense was absent.

The Grizzlies scored 62 first-half points, setting a franchise playoff record for points in any half.

“The first two games, we just didn’t play well enough offensively to make a run of anything,” Lillard said. “[Saturday] would’ve been the night where we were playing well enough offensively to make a run, but we didn’t play well enough defensively, or not consistently enough. That’s probably why the series is 3-0.”

The Trail Blazers were also sloppy, fouling all too often.

In fact, the Grizzlies' 39 made free throws were more than their highest attempts in a game this season. They made 17 of 18 alone in the final 1:32 of the game.

“They play a physical game,” Lillard said. “Referees call it that way. They know who they are as a team. Sometimes that’s a challenge, because that’s not what we do. We don’t go out and try to be really physical. So when we try to match that, there were some whistles that got called on us when we just tried to match the physicality. But that’s part of the game.”

In the locker room, Afflalo sat over a plate of picked-at beef lasagna, slouched in a chair, his hands crossed over his lap, just staring across the room, lost in a haze.

His teammates’ expressions didn’t inspire much enthusiasm either.

If anything, there was only acceptance.

“Got to give credit to them,” Aldridge said.

“This is a good team. They didn’t panic,” Batum said.

“They defend well. They play really well together offensively,” Lillard said.

It would be more interesting if Matthews were healthy; his 3-point shooting could help stretch the Grizzlies’ defense and his defense could help mask Lillard’s weaknesses on that end.

It might be more interesting Monday if Urdih is out and Conley is sidelined, but it’s not as though it’s one or two players who are killing the Trail Blazers.

It’s the Grizzlies’ system that’s doing them in.

“They play really good team defense,” Lillard said. “It’s not like you can just break one guy down or attack one guy or attack one guy and he’s not going to have help. I think they’ve really done a great job game planning. They’ve locked into what we do.”

A Trail Blazers win Monday would only delay the inevitable.

“Obviously, nobody’s come back from 3-0,” Lillard said. “The easy thing to do would be to say, nobody has ever come back from 3-0. But it’s not impossible.”

No, it’s just never been done in NBA playoff history.

And it won't start with this series, either.