Blazers looking for more shots to fall in Game 3

His consistent and reliable scoring created a one-two punch with Damian Lillard in the back court that helped Portland surprise everybody and make the Playoffs for the third consecutive season.The guard duo of Lillard and McCollum is the third leading duo in the league (45.9 ppg).

When it comes to the Trail Blazers, everybody knows what Lillard is capable of from a talent perspective. Portland withstood a seven-game losing streak in November, eventually shrugging off the critics who expected the team to wither in what was considered a rebuilding year.

One day after being named the NBA's Most Improved Player, C.J. McCollum kept it up, scoring 27 points in helping lead the Blazers to a 96-88 victory over the L.A. Clippers. J.J. Redick, who shot 55% from the field and 36% from three in his team's two wins, finished 20% from the field in the game 3 loss. They hit a season low 16.7 percent from 3-point range (3 of 18) while shooting 56.5 percent from the free-throw line. "That's kind of how I was looking at it, but now I understand it comes from hard work, it's based on perception and not having played, not having the body of work to show for it", McCollum said.In the regular season, Boston's offensive rating (points scored per 100 possessions) in the first quarter was 103.8.

Lillard and McCollum's fortunes changed considerably in Saturday's Game 3 at Moda Center.

"In my mind I always thought I was a good player, so when you hear 'most improved, ' you think like, he was sorry, he got better".

Suddenly, he is the landslide victor of the award, Terry Stotts is a candidate for Coach of the Year, Ed Davis got votes for Sixth Man of the Year, Lillard re-affirmed his standing as a star at point guard, and the Blazers are in the playoffs, not a deep crater, after a 44-38 regular season. McCollum combined for 59 points while Chris Paul had 26 points and nine assists for the Clippers.

Griffin recalled that the Clippers had a 2-0 lead on Memphis three years ago but lost that series too.

"We saw that they were rolling", said Paul. But it was worse than his poor shooting of 33 percent during the first two games in Los Angeles.

The victor of this series could see their chances greatly increase in the next round, especially for the veteran Clippers and Chris Paul, who could reasonably see a path to the conference finals where they've never been. To get them, you have to produce as a team.

"We're not going to win a lot of games playing the way we played last night", Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. The first two games haven't reflected that belief, as both games ended in blow-outs. He had two wonderful shots late in the game and both of them went in and out.

McCollum's season has yet to conclude as the Trail Blazers are in the heat of a best-of-seven-game series with the Los Angeles Clippers.

He became the first player with 19 or more rebounds and eight or more assists in a playoff game since LeBron James in 2010.

"With the attention that me and CJ get, we've got to trust him in the middle to score the ball and make the right play, " Lillard said. Los Angeles has not performed well ATS during its last 10 games, earning a 3-7 record.