NBA schedule and results: Wizards dominate Pacers, Mavericks top Bulls in Chicago

If you haven’t been paying attention -- and maybe you haven’t, because who in their right mind expected the Portland Trail Blazers to be a half-game out of the playoffs halfway through January -- this is just an extension of Lillard’s fantastic season. He’s averaging just shy of 25 points per night while shooting 42 percent (a number he can and will improve on) and 38 percent from behind the arc. He’s grabbing nearly five rebounds a night while dishing more than seven assists. The fourth-year pro shows growing pains now and again as he morphs into Portland’s new face of the franchise, but on Friday, all his skills showed up at once in a nice, neat package, all culminating in a Blazers’ win.

Portland felt confident headed into a post-Aldridge future thanks to Lillard, but perhaps even they couldn’t have expected the team to rebound as nicely as they did. Even if a playoff run doesn’t materialize and the healthier Jazz pull their team together, the Blazers have to be pleased. They haven’t mortgaged anything for the future, but yet here they are, just half a game out of the No. 8 seed halfway through a rebuilding season.

It was at about that point that Jeff Van Gundy, who was ANNOUNCING THE GAME, just decided that this had gotten so bad you shouldn’t even be watching it anymore.

The 2015-16 Houston Rockets, ladies and gentlemen!