PORTLAND, Ore. -- Taj Gibson is the longest-tenured player on the Chicago Bulls and has seen more ups and downs than most players endure over a career. Entering his eighth professional season, all with the Bulls, Gibson is a testament to the theory that the strong survive in the brutal meat grinder that is professional basketball.

Until last season Gibson's Bulls had never beaten the Portland Trail Blazers. A streak of seven consecutive losses in the Moda Center, which included multiple blowouts, another season-ending knee injury to former point guard Derrick Rose in 2013 and a severe ankle injury for Gibson the following season that put him out for weeks.

So you'll have to excuse the veteran forward and many Bulls staffers if they couldn't quite believe what they witnessed Tuesday night. It wasn't just that the Bulls destroyed the Blazers from beginning to end, a 113-88 domination, it was the ease with which it occurred.

"A long time coming I tell you that," Gibson said. "I've been around, even when we was competing, even when we had some teams when we were competing for championships, they still gave us a good whopping. Finally, the way we set the game off [with] the right kind of tone, I was even in shock with the way we just came out and hit them in the mouth and just kept going. When we want to play we're a hell of a team. You never know what you're going to get, we had some good days in practice, but this is a good one. A long time coming. We've been getting our tails whipped in here a long time."

The fact that the Bulls were the ones setting the tone against a team that has owned them in this venue over the seasons was made even more impressive by the fact that Fred Hoiberg's team was playing without Rajon Rondo (left ankle), Doug McDermott (concussion protocol) and Michael Carter-Williams (knee/wrist). The Bulls out-hustled the Blazers throughout the night and were able to continue riding the hot hand of Jimmy Butler.

Jerian Grant scored 18 points while substituting for the injured Rajon Rondo at point guard. Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images

"I think it was our most complete game that we played [this year]," Hoiberg said.

The Bulls played with a togetherness that was rarely seen last season. They were getting contributions up and down the roster. While Butler's sterling line of 27 points, 12 rebounds and five assists will get all the deserved praise, it was Jerian Grant's performance -- 18 points, five steals, three rebounds and two assists -- that will be the bigger takeaway on this night. Grant, who was inactive for the first three games of the season, took his opportunity with Rondo out and ran with it.

"It's great playing with those guys," Grant said of playing with Butler and Dwyane Wade. "They give me a lot of confidence. When I was named the starter they came to me, sat me down and said, 'You're the point guard so let's go.' And that gave me a lot of confidence to just go out there and play my game."

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The confidence in Grant's game was apparent on the floor, but the chemistry off of it continues to play an important role in the Bulls' early-season success. As happy as Butler and Wade were for Grant, they couldn't help but tease him after the game as he dressed in a old Bulls warmup T-shirt on his way out of the arena. Like a high-schooler repping his basketball team in a school shirt after a big win, Grant was proud to wear the shirt. But Butler and Wade weren't about to let the second-year player walk out without saying something.

Smiles are easier to come by for a group that knows the basketball world wasn't expecting much from them this season. While the on-court differences are becoming clearer as the season unfolds, the biggest change from within is in attitude. Everybody seems to be getting along well, and that cohesiveness helped the Bulls earn one of their most impressive team wins in several years. The fact that it occurred at the start of a six-game road trip, in a place where the Bulls have historically struggled, wasn't lost on the veterans in the locker room.

"I knew everybody was going to get along," Butler said. "Everybody was going to like each other. Are we ahead of where I thought? Not really, I don't think we're doing anything out of the ordinary. Everybody's playing to their strengths trying to cover up their weaknesses. We're paying attention in film. Everybody's working on their game. As long as you do that, you're going to be put in the right position. Guys are in this gym early. At shootaround, getting shots up, studying film, that's the reason why guys are playing the way that they are. There's no fluke to that."