Lillard, McCollum exceeding expectations for Trail Blazers

A quarter of the way through the season, the Portland Trail Blazers backcourt of point guard Damian Lillard and third-year shooting guard C.J. McCollum has become one of the best in the league.

McCollum is playing the best basketball of his career, and has already scored more points than he did during his entire 2014-15 campaign. His 19.5 points and 3.8 assists are second on the team only to Lillard, who, in his fourth season with the Blazers, is also in the midst of a career year. He's putting up 24.5 points, 7.0 assists and a player efficiency rating of 21.87 (all top 10 numbers among point guards).

They trail only the Golden State Warriors' Splash Brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, in combined points scored by a starting point guard and shooting guard. Lillard and McCollum are also both in the top 10 in three-pointers made, and clearly have no qualms with letting shots fly.

When comparing the play of Lillard and Matthews last season to Lillard and McCollum this season, Portland's backcourt has remained fairly similar, but has also shown some improvement.

Lillard and Matthews per game, 2014-15: 36.9 points, 8.5 assists, 2.5 steals, 18.47 PER, 43.9% shooting, 5.3 three-pointers made, 36.3% three-point percentage.

Lillard and McCollum per game, 2015-16: 44.0 points, 10.8 assists, 2.3 steals, 19.33 PER, 42.3% shooting, 5.2 three-pointers made, 37.8% three-point percentage.

With a 9-14 record, the Blazers are doing better than we expected, led by Lillard and McCollum. But they're getting essentially no help from their frontcourt. Their next highest scorer -- and only other player averaging double-digit points -- is Al-Farouq Aminu, putting up 10.8 points and an 11.4 PER (league average is 15). If they want any chance to remain competitive in the Western Conference, young bigs like Mason Plumlee and Ed Davis need to establish a more substantial role in the paint, because the Blazers don't have enough to get by relying solely on their backcourt.

Next up: the Blazers will travel to Phoenix where Lillard and McCollum will go head-to-head with another talented young backcourt duo of Brandon Knight and Eric Bledsoe on Friday night.