It wasn’t just the fact that they won. It was how good they looked while doing it.

Despite playing just nine players, the Warriors got contributions from up and down the roster and played like more than the sum of their parts en route to a 127-118 win over the Portland Trail Blazers, who entered the game as 12-point favorites.

The most notable player, once again, was Eric Paschall. For the third time in four games, he was the best Warrior on the floor. On his 23rd birthday, he gave himself a gift by dropping 34 points, which was not only a career-high but the most by any rookie at this point in the season. He also grabbed 13 rebounds and picked up his first career three-pointers, hitting four of them. The Chase Center crowd showed him love, even going so far as to shower him with “MVP” chants, which Paschall appreciated.

“That was a little crazy,” he said. “For a rookie, hearing ‘MVP,’ that’s a wow moment … to hear that, I just thank Dub Nation, honestly.”

Paschall may not quite be at MVP levels yet, but he is using a depleted Warriors roster to show what he can do with big minutes on the court. He has stepped up as an offensive catalyst and turned into a legitimate dark horse Rookie of the Year Candidate while impressing head coach Steve Kerr with his performance.

“What surprised us, I think, was the shooting touch that he showed tonight,” Kerr said. “I didn’t expect four threes out of him. But he’s just playing with great confidence. He’s out there believing he can do it.”

However, it wasn’t just Paschall who stepped up. The team received offensive contributions throughout the lineup. Ky Bowman scored 19 points, dished out eight assists and provided energy, engaging face-to-face with Hassan Whiteside after the Blazers big man gave Bowman an unsportsmanlike shove following a made basket. Bowman’s fellow two-way player, Damion Lee, continued his strong start to the season with 18 points which included a 10-for-11 mark from the free throw line. Willie Cauley-Stein added 10 points, including finishing on a couple of nice lobs. Although he struggled shooting, Jordan Poole continues to fire away confidently and isn’t afraid to call his own number, even hitting a beautiful stepback three-pointer while guarded by Damian Lillard. Alec Burks also scored double digits and the team as a whole shot very well, shooting 48.8% from the field, 38.5% from three-point range and 91.7% from the charity stripe.

The defense, although inconsistent, stepped up. For large portions of the game, Lillard did what he seemingly always does against the Dubs, going for 39 points. However, the Warriors stepped up on several crucial possessions by double-teaming him and forcing him to get rid of the ball. They dared role players such as Rodney Hood and Kent Bazemore to shoot a lot and the strategy paid off, as those two players went a combined 4-for-18 from the field. Furthermore, with the game tied at 99 in the fourth quarter, the Warriors went on a 12-0 run triggered in large part by their strong defense.

But in spite of all that, perhaps the single most exciting thing about the game didn’t happen directly on the court, but in the area immediately surrounding it. The Chase Center crowd was hyped. Going into this season, one of the major questions about the new arena was whether or not the crowd would be able to maintain the same level of intensity that defined Oracle Arena. The East Oakland fandom was being replaced by a corporate San Francisco crowd that could lay down more money for tickets. As the team struggled for the first few games, the crowd didn’t bring the energy so familiar to Warriors games. Against the Blazers, the crowd brought the energy. Maybe the cheaper tickets brought out the authentic fans. Maybe Paschall willed the crowd into believing. Whatever it was, it didn’t quite capture the magic of Oracle Arena, but it came close on Monday night. The crowd got on its feet, threw out various chants and generally made noise for their scrappy team pulling out an unlikely win.

There’s still a long way to go in a season that will feature plenty of growing pains. Quite frankly, for as long as Stephen Curry and Draymond Green are out, performances like this one will be required to win games. But for the better part of 48 minutes, the underdog Warriors showed what they are capable of when they play like they belong on an NBA court.