What Damian Lillard Misses Most About Playing With C.J. McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic
Injuries have finally caught up to the Trail Blazers in the win-loss column. After stringing together six consecutive victories absent C.J. McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic, Portland suddenly finds itself on a three-game losing streak.
Following his team's 111-106 loss to the Nuggets on Tuesday, Damian Lillard explained how much he's missing sharing the floor with the Blazers' second and third-best players.
Portland has been without both McCollum and Nurkic since January 16, when the former suffered a hairline fracture to his left foot against the Hawks. His injury came just one game after Nurkic broke his wrist versus the Pacers two days earlier.
The Blazers are 10-8 over that timeframe, staying afloat by virtue of the league's sixth-most efficient offense. But just because they've managed borderline-elite offense at large hardly means holes left by McCollum and Nurkic have been filled consistently and completely.
Portland has a dreadful 106.3 offensive rating with Lillard on the bench over the past 18 games, per NBA.com/stats. As the Wizards, Nuggets and Suns have made painfully clear while selling out defensively to keep him in check, Lillard's production is much harder to come by without pressure releases offered by the presence of McCollum and Nurkic.
"If I'm not out there with a guy who's been in that position [running the offense] and we've practiced with them in that position, then I have to be the guy to do it," Lillard said. "So in those moments I'm always thinking of C.J., and with Nurk it's just like, when I see the matchup problems we can cause. Not that Enes can't get it done, but as we all know, Nurk's skill set as a passer at his size, how well he moves with his size...You always see in moments where you can see where they can help the team and impact the game, as we should. They're two of our three best players."
Lillard's torrid individual offensive stretch propelled the Blazers to a winning streak and burgeoned his MVP candidacy, but it ended last week when Washington committed whole-hog to getting the ball out of his hands. Phoenix and Denver went to similar defensive lengths, forcing Lillard to try and first beat them with the pass.
The numbers speak for themselves. Lillard's notched double-digit assists in five of the last six games; he's making every adjustment needed to exploit all that extra defensive attention. Still, it goes without saying he'd much rather deal with a more workable numbers game at the point of attack.
The good news for Lillard is there's light at the end of the tunnel. Both McCollum and Nurkic will be back shortly after the All-Star break, easing an individual offensive burden that's been basketball's heaviest since they've been out.
Whether McCollum and Nurkic will offer a similar reprieve for Portland's porous defense, unfortunately, is another question altogether.