This Day in Blazers History: CJ McCollum Scores First 40-Point Game

Former Portland Trail Blazers great CJ McCollum is an NBA scoring machine. Now with the New Orleans Pelicans, McCollum knocked down a career-high 11 3-pointers to go along with 42 points in a 127-116 win over the Philadelphia 76ers last Friday, marking the sharpshooter’s latest 40-point game and 10th of his NBA career.

Six years ago, on this day, Jan. 1, 2017, McCollum recorded the first 40-point game of his career with the Blazers in a 95-89 win against the Minnesota Timberwolves. With Damian Lillard sitting out with an injury, McCollum unleashed for 43 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.

As the Twitter post by @77Blazers states above, it was the first of eight 40-point games McCollum put up with the Blazers. At the time, the game marked McCollum’s career-high for points in a game. A year later, he would set a new career-high with 50 points in a game against the Chicago Bulls.

Here’s a full highlight video of McCollum’s 2017 performance against Minnesota, for those who want to take a stroll down memory lane (Spoiler Alert: There’s a lot of midrange jumpers).