If you’re looking for pre-game viewing in the anxious lead-up to Wednesday’s Raptors opener against Zion Williamson and the Pelicans, you can do worse than the YouTube chronicle of Pascal Siakam’s off-season attempt to right the wrongs of last season’s playoffs.
It’s not news that Siakam’s performance in those hermetically sealed, COVID-free playoffs was beyond dismal, at least by the standards of an NBA all-star. A season after the Raptors won their first championship, they lost to the Celtics in a second-round Game 7 largely because the usually formidable parameters of Siakam’s game shrunk beyond recognition.