Very few words here, moreso a collage of videos in a “Morning Coffee” format.
Friday
Kicking things off with a question that got Scottie Barnes thinking.
Jose Alvarado ended up being the Rising Stars MVP, but Barnes got him in the half court contest during practice.
Andrew Nembhard may have had the best pass of the entire weekend.
All of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s fits went viral, but his first one especially was approved by his Thunder teammate Josh Giddey.
Scottie was also on Team Pau Gasol. Guards tend to hog the ball in these contests, but #4 had something special for the Rising Stars Championship Game.
Barnes needed to be in the middle for a better trophy raise. Bennedict Mathurin was also on the winning team.
Saturday
There weren’t any Raptors or Canadians in Saturday’s festivities, but Pascal Siakam’s camcorder stole the show.
Siakam may have captured the best reactions to Mac McClung taking over the dunk contest too.
Meanwhile Donovan Mitchell seems to have Pascal’s foul drawing yell down.
Sunday
Old teammates.
Meanwhile Gilgeous-Alexander became the fourth ever Canadian to make an all-star appearance, joining Steve Nash, Jamaal Magloire and Andrew Wiggins.
As Pascal promised, the camera returned for an encore.
Shoutout to Giannis Antetokounmpo, who drafted both Siakam and SGA (although that was a make-up for trying to draft Ja Morant as a reserve).
An important edit to the Canadian National anthem by Jully Black.
Onto a fun connection during the game.
SGA: nine points, seven assists
Siakam: 12 points, seven boards, four assists.
Siakam during halftime was a whole vibe.
Shai and Pascal didn’t get much court time in the second half.
A couple plays to remember from earlier: LeBron James had a chase down block on Shai, and also tried to do the same thing to Siakam but his finger got caught on the rim. James missed the second half as a result. Those two plays alone accounted for probably 60 percent of the defence played by either team all game.
SGA was asked about LeBron blocking him afterwards.
Final takeaway: Siakam and Gilgeous-Alexander were also on the winning team, capping a perfect record for everyone in this recap. Apologies if I missed anything.
The Raptors get back to their playoff chase on Thursday, hosting the Pelicans.
