The Portland Trail Blazers won their sixth straight game, and their third straight on the road, 126-124 over the New Orleans Pelicans Wednesday night. Damian Lillard led the way, with 43 points (14-for-28 from the floor; 7-for-16 from 3-point range), 16 assists (tied for a career-high) and four rebounds. He has scored at least 30 points in five of those six wins, with at least nine assists in the last four (at least 10 dimes in three straight).

In those last three games, as he’s averaging 36 points and 12.3 assists per game in that span, Lillard has taken at least 25 shots in each while shooting 41.5 percent from beyond the arc and a shade over 48 percent from the floor overall. So there’s a case that he’s just starting to hit a different stride. That’s a scary though for Portland’s opponents.

Lillard is third in the league in scoring (29.8 points per game), 10th in assists (7.7 per game) and fifth in usage rate (32.2 percent). But with over 20 shots per game has still come positive overall contribution, as he’s fifth in player efficiency rating (PER) entering Thursday’s action. Lillard has always been an excellent free throw shooter, but he’s also making a career-best 93.3 percent from the line thus far.

Damian Lillard Is A Legit MVP Candidate

Look no further than the Trail Blazers Basketball Reference page to see who they’ve been doing without. The list of injured players is led by CJ McCollum (left foot) and Jusuf Nurkic (wrist). That duo, easily regarded as the Trail Blazers’ second and third best players behind Lillard, have missed the last 15 and 16 games respectively. In their last 15 games without both guys, Portland is 10-5 (8-2 in their last 10). Overall this season they are now 18-10, good for the fourth-best record in the Western Conference.

Over those last 15 games, 14 of which he has played, Lillard is averaging 31.9 points, 8.6 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game. That broader run has also come with upticks over his season-long rates in shot volume and shooting percentages.

Nurkic was expected to miss eight weeks at the time of his injury. So that puts his return somewhere around mid-March. On Wednesday, the team announced McCollum will have his fractured left foot re-evaluated in two weeks. With the All-Star Game coming March 7, McCollum may not be back until after the break.

The efforts of Carmelo Anthony, Gary Trent Jr., Enes Kanter and others in helping to cover for Portland’s injury absences has to be noted. Terry Stotts also deserves a good dose of credit for putting the pieces together, as he remains one of the most underrated coaches in league. But Lillard is leading the way, with an MVP turn that just might yield the award.