Blazers’ CJ McCollum Displays Dazzling Floater

Each week, Team Mom highlights her favorites plays, players and other things that made the Trail Blazers fun to watch. Who is Mom’s Favorite this week? Did anyone get put in the dog house? What were your favorite things this week? Let us know in the comments below.

Week 8: December 9-15. Houston Rockets (L), Memphis Grizzlies (L), Toronto Raptors (W),

Mom’s Favorite: CJ McCollum’s Floaters

CJ McCollum had a pretty good week. Over three games he averaged 25.7 points per game, which is above his season average of 21.7. McCollum has his 40-point outburst against the Memphis Grizzlies to thank for his increased numbers. With Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic struggling, the scoring load fell on McCollum.

McCollum is a creative scorer, who is armed with a bag full of tricks from all over the court, but his floaters in the lane stole the show for me this week. They took center stage on Wednesday night, when he went 9-11 on floaters. Over three games this week he produced a high volume and connected with this type of shot (7 floaters per game at a rate of 72.23 percent) compared to the rest of the season (2.8 floaters, at 61.03 percent).

Watch him twist around Clint Capella, blow by James Harden, finish a fast break, then chip it up and over Serge Ibaka.

Gold Star: Eight turnovers against Toronto

It might not feel like it on most nights, but the Blazers are not the worst in the league at committing turnovers. In fact, they are currently in the middle of the pack, averaging 14.8 turnovers per game.

This past week, they committed fewer turnovers than their season average in each one of their games. The eight turnovers they had against Toronto were the second-fewest they committed all season (their lowest was six against the Clippers on Nov. 8). Let’s hope this decline in turnovers continues.

Honorable Mentions

Lillard’s Hustle. McCollum and Lillard are No. 1 and No. 2 on the team in loose balls recovered per game (1.7 and 1.6). Lillard’s dive to the floor during the Memphis game led to a McCollum 3-pointer.

A reverse alley-oop dunk. What is this, a Mason Plumlee team? Nope, it was Meyers Leonard deftly catching and finishing a beautiful pass from Evan Turner. This play in the second quarter contributed to a 11-2 run by the Blazers’ bench.

Lillard’s Respect thread. Lillard started his Respect Campaign at the beginning of his tenure in Portland. It focuses on urging local students to Show Up, Work Hard and Be Kind. This year, he periodically praises students whose teachers recognized them for demonstrating these values. He started this thread back in October and continues to add to it.

Al-Farouq A-Photo of the week. Trail Blazers reporter Casey Holdahl beat out perennial Mom’s Favorite Bruce Ely for this week’s photo of the week. Aminu’s outfit, a gorgeous African print, stole the pre-game runway show. This is not the first time he’s dressed in these bright fabrics, his opening night outfit was featured on Stay Woke’s Instagram feed.

Dog House: NBA Scorekeepers

Let me first say that I would be an absolutely terrible NBA scorekeeper. I honestly don’t know how they do it. I mean, I’ve read about how they do it, but to be able to describe and accurately record every action in the game while it is going on has got to be incredibly hard. That is why it was so surprising that they missed a free throw during Tuesday night’s game against Houston. They missed a point that was scored while the game was stopped. The NBA officially corrected the score of the Houston game shortly after it ended.

That’s it for this edition of Mom’s Favorites. Who or what were your favorite things this week? Let us know in the comments below!