Two years later, the biggest shot of Xavier Tillman Sr.’s career still stands uncontested at the top of the list. 

He can’t deny it. 

In a must-win play-in game against the Golden State Warriors, Tillman grabbed a pass in the corner and nailed the overtime shot, beating the buzzer and keeping Steph Curry and company out of the playoffs.

It was a 3-pointer. One of 22 he hit that season. How could he forget it?

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“I hit a 3 in the first half that Kyle (Anderson) passed to me and said ‘Shoot it!’ on the pass,” Tillman recalled. “Second half, Kyle kicked it to me again and I shot it and I hit the side of the backboard. I was like ‘Awww man.’ 

“Then we went to overtime, and when he passed me another one, I passed up on it. Coach called a timeout and said, ‘X, if you’re going to play, you have to shoot it. I don’t care if it’s a make or a miss, but you have to shoot it.’

“When that opportunity came up again, I knew I had to shoot it. I didn’t care if it was a make or miss, I was locking it in. I let it go and hit it. 

“I was so hype. Of course I remember that. That was a great moment.”

Now entering his fourth season, Tillman is searching for that shot once again. He showcased that with two tries in a 108-102 preseason win over the Milwaukee Bucks at FedExForum on Tuesday. 

What happened to Tillman’s 3-point stroke? In 2022-23, Tillman’s total 3-point tries could be counted on two hands — 10.

Surely it didn’t disappear into a puff of smoke, right? Did he lose confidence? Did they tell him to stop shooting it?

Neither Jenkins nor Tillman could provide a clear answer as to why he stopped lifting from deep. Instead, it was a mix of reasoning from positional changes, inconsistent rotation minutes and roles he backfilled because of frontcourt injuries. 

“I think some of it was the positions that we put him in last year,” Jenkins said. “His role drastically changed and the lineups he was playing with. ... He was more involved in pick-and-rolls last year, probably more than his first year, even though he was typically playing that (center) spot. I think it’s just a matter of where he was finding his comfort in his third year.”

None of that really matters now. This season, the Grizzlies are sure they want him shooting 3-pointers again. 

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Under the direction of new assistant coach Patrick St. Andrews, the Grizzlies have new “running habits.” It’s another way of saying that as the team sets up an offense, Tillman will be standing on the perimeter to space the floor. 

It only works, of course, if Tillman can make enough shots from beyond the arc to make defenders respect him.

“The message at the beginning of the summer was, ‘Hey, we need you shooting a lot of 3s, that way when it’s time you can space the floor out and play,’ ” Tillman said. “I didn’t even realize we were going to change our offense like that, but we did, and I already put in the work.”

A lot of work. 

“The whole summer I spent shooting 3s, literally the whole summer,” Tillman said. “It’s not even about the skill of it anymore. It’s more about willingness to let it fly and trusting my work. 

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“There was a week in the summer, like a five- or six-day span, where I shot like 4,100 3s. Yeah, I was getting them up, for sure.”

But that happened by accident. The week a storm blew through Memphis and knocked the power out, Tillman didn’t have anything else to do. 

“Because of the power outage, I had to stay Downtown with my family,” Tillman said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’m down the street, I can come back and shoot at night and bring my kids, it’s all good.’

“Monday through Saturday I was doing two-a-days. I would come in the morning and do my workout, and then I would come back at like 7 p.m. and shoot again for 30 minutes to an hour.”

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“I started to have hand issues and they told me, ‘Well yeah, there’s a reason why you do. Your scores are crazy in terms of how many things you’ve done. You just shot like over 4,000 shots,’ ” Tillman recalled. 

Jenkins noted earlier this week that Tillman’s 3-point percentage in practice is impressive. If the big can translate that to the games, he could be a major part of the Grizzlies’ rotation this season. It’s a much-needed addition to what he already does so well. 

Preseason power

In many ways, Tuesday night’s preseason contest against the Bucks was exactly the style that suits a burly big man like Tillman, who started. It was a bruising, defensive contest, even with so many stars out of the lineup. 

There was no Giannis Antetokounmpo, no Damian Lillard, no Khris Middleton, no Steven Adams and no Marcus Smart. Milwaukee bigs Jae Crowder and the Lopez twins ensured the paint was still laboring. 

Just as he did in the playoffs last season against LeBron James and Anthony Davis, Tillman held his own. He planted himself in front defensively and stuck to the taller opponents. The big man also led the team in rebounds, with eight.

“It allows us to get ready for the grueling season,” Tillman said of the physicality. “You would rather start that now, versus 10 games in when you have to adjust to it and you’re feeling sore.”

Memphis leaned on stars Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane for the scoring. Bane finished with a team-high 21, and Jackson added 17. 

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Tillman, meanwhile, dropped in six points on 3-for-6 shooting. His two 3-point tries went wide, but he will have ample opportunity to prove he can make them going forward. 

This is a contract year for Tillman, the last on his rookie deal. The Grizzlies did not turn down his team option and sign him to a new deal over the summer. They already have Adams, Brandon Clarke and Santi Aldama under contract through the end of next season. 

To cash in on all of his hard work -- in Memphis or elsewhere -- Tillman will have to show that his perimeter game is more than just a shot that clinched a playoff spot in 2020. 

He needs to put it all together. 

“I personally think it’s perimeter shooting mixed with playmaking off transition,” Tillman said. “ ... It’s 3-point shooting and that as the next evolution of my game.”