The last few minutes were joyous.

It was obvious to everyone that the Grizzlies were going to win.

A few fans headed for the exit, but not many.

Most lingered to soak it all in.

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“We’re staying,” said Linda Cornish, a season-ticket holder in the lower bowl. “I need to see it.”

Soon enough, she — and Memphians everywhere — saw something they had not seen in 218 days.

The clock ran down. The fans rose to their feet.

The streamers fell. People scrambled to collect them, as if they were spun of pure gold.

Last season, those victory streamers fell from the rafters after 35 home games.

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This season, they fell for the first time Wednesday night.

The final: Grizzlies 105, Jazz 91.

“It’s great to get that one under the belt,” said Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins, speaking for players and coaches and an entire community.

This has been a hard season — and not just because the Grizzlies have been so bad. It’s because they’ve become so bad, so fast.

The franchise has had down years before. Since moving to Memphis, the Grizzlies have had multiple seasons during which they won between 20 and 30 games.

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But nearly all those seasons were supposed to be lousy. This season was supposed to be good. Even after Ja Morant was suspended, even after Steven Adams got hurt.

Nobody imagined that the Grizzlies would start 3-13. Nobody imagined they would look so shockingly inept. When Marcus Smart — dressed in street clothes — laid into his teammates during Sunday’s loss to Minnesota, it felt like the team could be coming apart.

So Wednesday’s game took on particular significance. Especially because of the team’s embarrassing record at home.

Sidney Lowe’s Grizzlies never opened a season with eight straight home losses. Neither did Marc Iavaroni’s Grizzlies. With a three-game road trip looming after Wednesday’s game, the team’s home record had become the elephant in the locker room.

“Oh, we know,” said Grizzlies guard Derrick Rose, earlier in the day. “We’ve been trying everything.”

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Said Jenkins, bluntly: “Our fans deserve better play at home.”

But here’s the thing about those fans. They were mostly just sad.

Sure, there’s been a fair bit of anger and frustration spilled on social media and on radio shows. That’s just how it goes.

But you should have seen Charlie Gorman Wednesday, in FedExForum very last row, making sure all 20 people in her party had found their way to their seats.

“My daughter is with the school group that is singing the national anthem,” she said.

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And you got tickets all the way up here?

“It’s the only place where I could get 20 tickets together,” she said. “I had to buy a ticket for her, too. But it doesn’t matter. We love being here. We really just love the Grizz.”

Closer to the court, 15-year-old Presley Milam held up a sign that said, “All I want for Christmas is a pic with Desmond.”

Naturally, Desmond Bane stopped for the photo. It will be a merry Christmas, indeed.

Or a merry night, anyway. Let the record show that the Milam family — who live in Murray, Kentucky, and come down for a few games every year — have never, ever seen the Grizzlies lose.

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“We’re 7-0,” said Chad Milam, the dad.

And now that record is 8-0.

It wasn’t all just the Milams, of course. Injecting Derrick Rose and David Roddy into the starting lineup seemed to help. Rose had 14 points and nine assists in 27 turn-back-the-clock minutes. Roddy dropped in a career high five 3-pointers and finished with 19 points.

And Jaren Jackson Jr. looked like his old self again! He had 20 points and his first four-block game (he finished with six) since opening night.

The real fun unfolded in the second quarter. That’s when Rose and Ziaire Williams both outraced the Jazz for loose balls on the way to layups and when Roddy and Williams combined for the first running alley-oop dunk of the year.

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Suddenly, the building was crackling again. Amazing what a 36-17 second quarter will do.

“The response was awesome,” said Jenkins. “Hope it can spark us going forward.”

Ahhh, there’s the rub.

The Grizzlies still have to play eight more games without Morant. They’ll be the underdogs in at least six of them. There are almost certainly more hard times ahead.

But this was a win that everyone desperately needed. This was a win to restore — okay, if not hope, how about sanity?

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That’s why so many stood for the final few moments. It’s why so many scrambled for those streamers, as if they’d never seen them before.

Ian Johnson, 9, emerged with a particularly big cluster. He carried a fistful to show off to his dad.

And what did he plan to do with them?

“Keep them!” he said.

May they remind us to appreciate the good times, as well as the bad.