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Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum have been in this business for a while, and even by their high standards, they’re off to a flying start this season. On Wednesday night, Lillard had 40 points and 13 assists, and McCollum added 28 points and 10 assists, in the Trail Blazers’ return to the Kings – making them Portland’s top pair or teammates in every position in the minus 25 points and 10 assists in the same game since Clyde Drexler and Terry Porter in 1992.
Moreover, they are only the fourth tandem team-mate in history to score at least 250 points each in the first 10 games of the season, joining Shaq and Kobe (2001-02), Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson (three times ) and Jayson Tatum. and Jaylen Brown this season.
Lillard is now the single player to register at least 40 points and 13 assists with zero turnover in a single game since turnovers became an official statistic in 1977. The 40 3-pointers McCollum hit through the first nine games of the season align him with Curry as the only players in history to do this.
So, yeah, Lillard and McCollum continue to be great, like we need more proof of that long established fact. So great, in fact, that it has become quite difficult to say that they haven’t stood out as the best backcourt, at least right now, in the NBA. On Wednesday night, Lillard scoffed at the idea that anyone might believe otherwise when he called a reporter whose tweet apparently suggested that Lillard and McCollum might not be the best backcourt.
Speaking of Lillard, anyone who even tries to start a conversation about the Wizards’ backcourt of Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook being potentially better than Lillard and McCollum has no idea. It’s not even close. Coming on Wednesday, McCollum is third in the league in points (28.1) and Lillard is seventh (27.4). And believe it or not, it has actually been a relatively pedestrian start to the season by Lillard standards.
With the way McCollum takes and makes a career-best 3 points (11.5 per game at 44%) to start this season, he has irrefutably parted ways with Westbrook, and Lillard has long been better than Beal. Chris Paul and Devin Booker have a case in Phoenix, but I’ll take Lillard over Paul by a bigger margin than I take Booker over McCollum.
Right now, Lillard is right. He and McCollum are the crème de la crème of the backcourt.
There are two qualities to consider. Firstly, Thompson isn’t playing at the moment, but when he returns, he and Curry will certainly have an affair against the Blazers duo. Second, James Harden just joined Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn. We’ll see how that plays out, but there’s certainly a possibility that this backcourt will emerge as the norm.
For now, however, Lillard and McCollum are on top.
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