New Orleans Pelicans’ CJ McCollum appeared to be quite pleased that the Portland Trail Blazers will miss the postseason during his postgame media session Saturday night.

The former Blazers star, following the Pelicans’ 131-110 win at the LA Clippers, was asked about his former team missing the postseason.

He responded by placing his right hand on his chin as if in deep thought, smiled and said: “I heard that their season is over. I guess the word on the streets is that they’re not gonna make the playoffs this year, which is very unfortunate.”

The Blazers traded McCollum prior to the 2022 trade deadline in a move that signaled a roster reset. McCollum spent nine seasons with the Blazers and for seven of them helped form one of the best backcourt scoring duos in the NBA along with his good friend, Damian Lillard.

The Blazers (32-41) missed the playoffs last year, made a few roster additions and hoped to reach the playoffs this season. But they were unable to make a run in the past month and just recently pulled the plug on attempting to reach the play-in.

Following his jab at the Blazers, McCollum became a bit more diplomatic.

“I watch a lot of their games,” he said. “I watch League Pass and I talk to Dame a lot. I talk to a lot of the staff, a lot of the players, and I wish them nothing but the best. I want to see them be healthy. I want to obviously see him playing on the biggest stage.”

Then he stopped, smacked his lips, and returned to his sarcasm: “But, it just wasn’t his year.”

He ended by piercing his lips and nodding his head before leaving.

Cute. But it’s not as if the Pelicans are guaranteed to be postseason-bound.

New Orleans (37-37) entered Sunday in a three-way tie for seventh in the Western Conference with Minnesota (37-37) and the Los Angeles Lakers (37-37). All three are one game ahead of Dallas (36-38) and Oklahoma City (36-38).

One of those five teams will miss the postseason.

The 12th-place Utah Jazz (36-39) have lost seven of their last 10 and like the 13th-place Blazers have seemingly ejected on the rest of the season by sitting key players.

The Pelicans, who play at the Blazers on Monday night, have a tough schedule the rest of the way with games against Golden State (39-36), Denver (50-24), the Clippers (39-36), Sacramento (45-29), Memphis (46-27), the New York Knicks (42-33) and the Timberwolves.

CJ McCollum when asked if he’s been watching Damian Lillard and the Blazers:

“I heard that their season is over. It’s just uhh… Word on the street is they’re not gonna make the playoffs this year which is very unfortunate.” ?

Author : Aaron Fentress

Source Url :https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2023/03/cj-mccollum-takes-subtle-playful-jab-at-trail-blazers-misfortunes.html