Damian Lillard may be the Portland Trail Blazers' best player and garners most of the attention as a result, but the Blazers would not be in the Western Conference Finals without the efforts of CJ McCollum, who was actually Portland's top guy in its second-round series win over the Denver Nuggets.
With Lillard struggling to find his shot in Game 7 on Sunday afternoon, McCollum poured in 39 points and made 17 of his 29 field-goal attempts to lead the Blazers to a 100-96 victory.
Overall, McCollum racked up 185 points over the course of the seven-game series, setting a Blazers franchise record.
CJ McCollum scored 185 points in the Western Conference Semifinals, the most in a single postseason series in @trailblazers history. The previous record of 179 points was set by LaMarcus Aldridge in 2014. #RipCity
— Justin Kubatko (@jkubatko) May 13, 2019
The 27-year-old averaged 26.4 points, six rebounds and three assists over 42 minutes per game during the series, shooting 45.5 percent from the floor, 37.5 percent from three-point range and 77.3 percent from the free-throw line.
Article Continues BelowLillard scored just 13 points off 3-of-17 shooting on Sunday, making McCollum's insane performance all the more critical.
Over the course of the entire series, Lillard registered 25.1 points, six assists, five rebounds and 1.7 steals across 41.2 minutes a night, but he made just 40.7 percent of his field-goal attempts, 28.8 percent of his long-distance tries and 79.6 percent of his foul shots in an uncharacteristically shaky performance from the veteran.
The Blazers are now moving on to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2000 and will take on the Golden State Warriors, which will actually mark their third playoff meeting with the Warriors over the last four years.
If Portland wants to have any chance of dethroning the champs, both Lillard and McCollum will have to be on the top of their games.