The good, bad and nerdy from the Portland Trail Blazers over the last week.

GOOD: MAKING THE OPEN ONES

The benefit of being a career 31 percent three-point shooter is that opposing defenses will ignore you on the perimeter.

Evan Turner has taken advantage of his well-earned reputation as a non-shooting threat to cash in on 46 percent of his long-range shots in January, easily his best three-point shooting month of the season.

Turner is 11-for-24 from beyond the arc in January, and all 11 of those makes have come on wide open shots when the closest defender is at least six feet away, according to tracking data from NBA.com.

Turner isn't a game-changing shooter, and he's averaging one three-point attempt per game in January. He is 0-for-5 on three-pointers that aren't 'wide open' over the past month. He rarely takes bad three-pointers because he doesn't make them.

The Blazers are fourth in the NBA in offensive rating (112.5) in January, finally finding their stride after two and a half months of being one of the bottom 10 offenses in the league. Turner burning defenses that completely ignore him at the three-point line is an added bonus.

BAD: THE DEFENSE

The Blazers lit up the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday as they rained in 17 three-pointers, threw down highlight dunks and put together their highest scoring quarter of the season. That offensive firepower helped mask an underwhelming defensive performance.

"We never really got on track defensively," Blazers coach Terry Stotts said following the 123-114 win that included a 43-point third quarter eruption. "Although I thought we did make some good defensive plays."

That's been the theme of the month for Portland. The Blazers have played seven of the top 11 offenses in the league in January and their defense has struggled to get on track. The Blazers are 26th in defense rating, allowing 110.7 points per 100 possessions in January. That's a steep decline from the opening months of the season where the Blazers ranked fifth in the NBA in points allowed per possession prior to Jan. 1.

It's understandable that the Blazers would have trouble slowing down Houston, Minnesota and Cleveland. They are the top offensive teams in the league for a reason. It's the poor defensive showings against the likes of Phoenix and Dallas that make for a troubling trend. As the Blazers' offense has surged, the defense has struggled, a complete reversal from the opening 36 games of the season.

NERDY: MID-RANGE

Last season, CJ McCollum was one of the league's deadliest mid-range shooters. His touch in between the three-point line and the lane coupled with his ability to shoot off the dribble made him one of most lethal pull-up weapons in the league.

"I think it's been more of a point of emphasis," McCollum said when asked about defenses keying on his mid-range attack. "You've got more film on me and you know I like to shoot the pull-up jumpers. So, (I) just have to read it and be cognizant of where the defense is going to be at."

On the season, McCollum is shooting 42.3 percent on mid-range shots, according to NBA.com. In January, however, McCollum is 20-for-62 (32.3 percent) on mid-range jumpers.

He is shooting 45 percent on short mid-range attempts (shots between four and 14 feet, according to Cleaning the Glass) and 42 percent on long mid-range attempts (shots between 14-feet and the three-point line). He is still an above-average shooter on mid-range looks, but it's a major drop off from 2016-17 when he was one of the very best in the league.

Last season, McCollum shot 50 percent on short mid-range attempts and a ridiculous 47 percent on long mid-range shots. According to Ben Falk's numbers at Cleaning the Glass, McCollum was in the 91st percentile in long mid-range shooting for combo guards in 2016-17 and has dropped to the 69th percentile this season.

The mid-range game is still a large part of McCollum's arsenal and he believes he find his form in that area in the second half of the season.

"It's a process," McCollum said. "But overall I like the shots I'm getting."

-- Mike Richman

mrichman@oregonian.com

@mikegrich