'It'll Be Kind of Weird': CJ McCollum Set to Face Damian Lillard for the First Time

PORTLAND, Ore. — CJ McCollum has already gotten his return to Portland out of the way. That happened last March, just over a month after the trade that sent him from the Trail Blazers to the Pelicans after eight-plus years sharing the backcourt with Damian Lillard. He got the tribute video, the standing ovation and the emotional reunion with the organization he spent nearly the first decade of his career playing for.

But Wednesday evening will be the first time he and Lillard actually face off against each other in an NBA game. Lillard had long been shut down for the season by the time that homecoming game happened last year, and he was out with a calf injury when the Blazers traveled to New Orleans in November.

"It'll probably be strange at first," McCollum said after the Pelicans' Wednesday morning shootaround at the Moda Center. "It'll be kind of weird. Even when you watch us play, it's still kind of weird for some fans. But we've got to do what we've got to do to try to get a win for our teams."

McCollum was not watching live when Lillard scored 71 points on Sunday. He was hanging out with his one-year-old son, Jacoby, having just gotten off an extended road trip with the Pelicans.

"I checked the halftime score, so I saw that he had 41 at halftime, and then I just checked to see how the scoring was going," he said. "I was happy for him. He works really hard. There's times where he could have gotten 60 before. I think he had 50 in three quarters twice, in nights where he didn't play the fourth quarter. When you do things the right way, you get rewarded."

Playing on the other side of the ball from Lillard is going to be emotional for McCollum, because of the friendship the two developed in their time together.

"I think it was authentic," McCollum said. "It wasn't forced. A long time before I was drafted, we developed a relationship and we both just happened to get drafted to the same team. I think it's just two guys who love basketball, who work hard, take care of their families and do things the right way. We really appreciate the journey and process of going to a small school and building out a solid foundation built on hard work and doing things the right way."

Not that Lillard and McCollum don't have an experience guarding each other from years of practices together. What happens on Wednesday will simply be an elevated version of those battles behind the scenes.

"We always guarded each other in practice," McCollum said. "It made it more competitive and really set the tone for the season and how practice should go. It was always a lot of fun. We always enjoyed competing. It was really good for our team, and it was really good for us to push each other on both sides of the ball and get in better shape."

The last time the Blazers and Pelicans played each other in November, they were two of the top teams in the Western Conference. The Blazers' ups and downs (mostly downs lately) have been well-documented here; New Orleans has been in a tailspin since Zion Williamson's hamstring injury in early January.

Right now, the Pelicans sit in 10th place in the Western Conference, half a game ahead of Portland following the Blazers' collapse last night at Golden State. There's a real chance that rather than determining playoff seeding, Wednesday night's game—and the remaining two times they play each other later in March—will determine which team qualifies for the play-in and which one doesn't.

"We're desperate for a win," McCollum said. "It'll be a competitive game tonight. The stakes rise every night. As we get closer to the end, you understand and appreciate each game. The playoffs are not promised, the play-in is not promised. You've got to go get it."