Despite playing with a fractured bone in his back—SPINAL—Portland Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum shined down the stretch in his team's 126-122 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference Play-In game on Saturday afternoon.

McCollum lit up the Grizzlies for 29 points on 11-for-19 shooting from the field (3-for-7 from three, 4-for-4 from the line), including multiple daggers down the stretch that were straight predatory.

After taking a bite out of Ja Morant and the young Grizzlies, McCollum used an aquatic analogy to describe his approach in the play-in game.

CJ McCollum had looked understandably limited in recent games due to his back injury, but he found his groove just in time. He dropped 14 points in the fourth quarter on Saturday and made it extremely clear that the 21-year-old Morant is no match for him.

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McCollum's heroics were buoyed by strong performances from Damian Lillard (31 points), Jusuf Nurkic (22 points, 21 rebounds) and Carmelo Anthony (21 points), who nailed a key three-pointer in the final minute to seal the victory for Portland.

The Blazers will face the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers in the first round. CJ McCollum evidently intends on continuing to hunt, and Portland will need him to carry the secondary offensive and ball-handling load to spell Lillard at times.

The highly-anticipated Blazers-Lakers series tips off on Tuesday on TNT.