
Shawn Marion's first experience as a Raptors wasn't the warmest of welcomes -- an ugly 93-76 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
But sitting at his locker after the game last night, the new Raptor diagnosed Toronto's woes as more in need of fine-tuning than a major overhaul. Cavaliers 93, Raptors 76
"I think I saw some good things out there, some things we can work on, we all can help each other and there's some great things out there that can happen," said Marion, putting a positive spin on an otherwise dreary evening.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas scored 22 points, while LeBron James finished with 20 to lead the Cavaliers over Toronto.
Joey Graham topped Toronto with 15 points while Marion, who received a huge cheer when the starting lineup was announced, added 10 in his first game since he was acquired Friday in a trade with the Miami Heat.
"I think it is trying to integrate new players," said Raptors' head coach Jay Triano of the loss. "We have had a couple of practices and they are trying to learn the plays on the fly, with guys on the floor directing them where to go and me yelling from the sideline where they are supposed to be."
Jose Calderon finished with 13 points and Andrea Bargnani added 11 for the Raptors (21-35), who were missing leading scorer Chris Bosh for the fifth consecutive game.
The Raptors kept pace with the Eastern Conference-leading Cavs (41-11) for much of the first half before Cleveland broke the game open in the third quarter. James, relatively quiet to that point, poured in 10 points in the quarter and put the Cavs ahead by 17 points on two free throws near the end of the frame and Cleveland led 71-56 with a quarter left to play.
A three-pointer by Anthony Parker early in the fourth pulled Toronto within 11, but that was as close as the Raptors would come much to the dismay of the capacity crowd of 19,800 at the ACC.
The game got heated in the final few minutes as Triano was ejected with five minutes left. Triano was arguing that Parker was fouled by James while shooting a jump shot. Triano, who had to be restrained by assistant Mike Evans, received a pair of technicals leading to an automatic ejection.