The New Orleans Pelicans haven’t gotten a great CJ McCollum game yet but it is coming soon.
It was reported by Will Guillory that CJ McCollum had a fever and the stomach bug before the Clippers play-in game. It showed, as McCollum shot a poor 9-of-24 from the field and 1-of-7 from three-point range.
Since then, in the last 10 quarters, CJ has shot 16-for-43 from the field. Despite his struggles, the Pelicans have been able to go 2-1 in those games. After two games of the Suns series, McCollum is shooting .500 from long range, but .372 overall. That’s very uncharacteristic of CJ who has been shooting .493 from the field since being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans.
The good news is that there are signs of life. The Suns possess a lot of length on the perimeter, and it has bothered everyone to some degree, not just CJ. However, McCollum has figured it out in Game 2 of the Suns series. He hit six 3-pointers in that game. What’s more impressive is that he scored 13 points on 4-5 shooting with Bridges as his primary defender in Game 2 according to ESPN Stats & Info.
After being held to 1 point on 0-9 shooting by Mikal Bridges in Game 1, CJ McCollum scored 13 pts on 4-5 shooting with Bridges as his primary defender in Game 2 pic.twitter.com/NLjDuQzgx1
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 20, 2022
CJ McCollum hasn’t had a great game from start to finish yet, even though he’s had some fairly good 4th quarters. McCollum is a playoff performer. His track record proves that. He’s scored 41 points versus the Denver Nuggets in 2019 in the Western Conference Semifinals and also did it versus the eventual champion Golden State Warriors in 2018.
With no Devin Booker, who is expected to miss games three and four of the first round series, the Suns will have to deal with trading baskets with both CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram. That’s a tough challenge for any team without their top scorer, and with CJ being due for a CJ game, the Pelicans have a real chance to go up 3-1 back to Phoenix with a win in the next two games.