4. CJ McCollum, Portland Trail Blazers
The next guy that is absolutely going to have to perform for his underdog team is Portland Trail Blazers guard, CJ McCollum.
The Blazers have been red hot since entering the bubble, behind the MVP level play of their star Damian Lillard.
But Dame hasn’t been the only one cooking for Portland in the bubble, or this season as a whole for that matter.
Coming into the playoffs, McCollum averaged 22.2 points, 4.4 assists, and 4.2 rebounds per game this season on 45-38-76 shooting splits, and posting a PER of 17.0. McCollum has been a staple in Portland for years and this season has been no different.
And his tremendous play continued for Portland when the league resumed play as he averaged 20.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game on 43-37-81 shooting splits, helping the Blazers to a 7-2 record in the bubble.
In their play-in game against the Memphis Grizzlies, McCollum put on a clinic, scoring 29 points and hitting some clutch shots down the stretch to help earn Portland the 8th seed in the West and a shot at LeBron James and the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers.
CJ PUTTING THE TEAM ON HIS (FRACTURED) BACK pic.twitter.com/FXVsAxzOGj
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) August 15, 2020
Portland is going to need CJ to keep up this level of play for them if they want to have a shot at taking down the Lakers. With Lillard averaging 38 points and 10 assists a game over the course of the seeding games, it is likely that he will be seeing double teams from Los Angeles on nearly every possession.
This is where McCollum is going to have to step up and help Dame be a primary shot creator and scorer. Lillard is going to get his, it will come down to McCollum’s play in this first round that determines what kind of series it will be. If he can keep his play at the level it has been over the course of the restart, the Blazers could make life very difficult for the Lakers in this first round.