The Daily Dose: Dose: Changed to McLovin

What happened to the Blazers tanking again? On Tuesday, they held on with a 112-104 win over the Nets to move them into a virtual tie with the Dallas Mavs for sixth in the Western Conference at 30-27. They’ve won six straight and have won 15 of their last 18.

We all knew Damian Lillard was going to be a stud and he was again on Tuesday, scoring 34 points with two rebounds, four assists, three steals and two 3-pointers. He’s on a mission after being snubbed and should be awesome going forward. Lillard Time also has scored 30-plus points in each of his last five, averaging 35.8 points, 2.6 boards, 6.0 dimes, 2.6 steals and 4.8 treys. After a slow start, he’s up to second-round value on the season per game.

The surprise to many was C.J. McCollum emerging as one of the best combo guards in the NBA. McCollum was at it again on Tuesday with 34 points, five rebounds, six assists, one steal and five 3-pointers.

He is having an awesome month, too. McCollum averaged 23.5 points, 3.9 boards, 4.3 assists, 1.9 steals, 0.6 blocks and 3.0 treys on 49.3 percent from the field. The treys give him a pristine 59.4 true shooting percentage on his 27.9 usage rate. Here’s his shot chart:

Yeah, 11-of-12 in the corners will work. He’s been a top-20 player this month and he’s up to top-30 value for the entire season. McCollum was hyped big time back in October, but he is crushing it and will continue to do so.

Besides Dame and C.J., the only other noteworthy line was Brook Lopez‘s season-high 36 points with 10 rebounds, one assist, four steals and one block. Lopez is on fire and looks to be on his way to a being a top-15 player the rest of the way and looks totally healthy.

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Randy Watson (Magic 124 at 76ers 115)

Well, Scott Skiles did it again. If you had C.J. Watson logging the most PG minutes in the second half, you win. Watson threw a wrench in the PG competition with 19 minutes, three points, five rebounds, two steals and two turnovers in a 124-115 win at Philly. He was actually playing well and the Magic did win, so we can’t totally be mad at Skiles. Of course, fantasy owners probably felt like this if they started Brandon Jennings in DFS:

Up until Tuesday, Watson was logging most of his minutes as a shooting guard-type player. It’s only one game, but this is not going to be a fun situation. Elfrid Payton scored three points with one rebound, eight assists and no turnovers in 20 minutes. You can cut him in standard leagues if you want. He’s been horrible for almost the entire season. Brandon Jennings is probably the best guard to own, but he was bad with six points, one rebound, three assists and one turnover. If there’s a hot free agent out there at all, you can definitely let Jennings go.

It wasn’t all bad for the Magic. Aaron Gordon did his stat-stuffing thing with 11 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, three steals and one block in 30 minutes. Once he can make any sort of jumpers like he was doing in January, Gordon should be a top-50 guy.

Nikola Vucevic had another revenge game against his former team, scoring a season-high 35 points with nine rebounds, four assists and one block in 37 minutes. He’s really picked it up with 24.6 points per game in his last five. Expect a nice finish from him with Tobias Harris out of town. Victor Oladipo should also be a stud. He had 22 points, four rebounds, four assists, three steals and one 3-pointer in 41 minutes. Skiles is finally unleashing him. Evan Fournier was effective with 21 points, three rebounds, four assists, two steals and three 3-pointers with his massive minute total.

Besides the Dipo-Evan-AG-Vooch quartet, nobody else is worth owning. Ersan Ilyasova is just a backup to Gordon and basically the same for Mario Hezonja for Fournier.

The 76ers defense was a nightmare and DFS owners will want to remember that, especially up front. “You have to bite your lip a lot to navigate them through it,” coach Brett Brown said about Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel on D. Basically, any high-end PF/C should be used against the 76ers.

There were not many takeaways on the Philly offensive side, though. Nerlens Noel (16 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block) and Ish Smith (22 points, one rebound, five assists and two 3-pointers) had some great chemistry as per usual. T.J. McConnell (ankle) is doubtful for Wednesday, so we’ll see Kendall Marshall — he’s only a very deep play.

If the Okafor-Noel D issues continue, that would bode well for Jerami Grant, who scored seven points with seven boards, two assists and one block. He’s just a low-end hold until further notice.

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