NBA basketball came to the Forest City Tuesday night, as the Toronto Raptors took on the Philadelphia 76ers in a pre-season contest.

Philadelphia came out on top 107-98 in a sloppy, mistake-ridden game that was used primarily to build team chemistry and establish familiarity between new players.

“I think we were a little shaky but we did some good things. The learning curve is going to be pretty steep for us,” Raptors head coach Jay Triano said. “There were some good things that happened out there but there were also a lot of things that we need to clean up.”

Louis Williams led the way for the 76ers with 17 points in 23:49 of game time. The Raptors, minus all-stars Chris Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu, were paced by centre Andrea Bargnani who had 22 points, on 9 of 14 shooting from the field.

“We have a lot of work to do, especially on defence,” Bargnani, the first overall pick in the 2006 NBA entry draft, said. “The offence is going to come [with the return of Bosh and Turkoglu], but we have to keep working on defence because we still have a lot to fix.”

The biggest factor early in the game was Toronto’s Reggie Evans who was playing his first game for the Raptors after being dealt from Philadelphia during the off-season.

The six-foot-eight forward opened the game on a tear, racking up two steals and six points in the first five minutes, prompting chants of ‘Reg-gie, Reg-gie’ from the crowd of 7,213 at the John Labatt Centre.

“The crowd was really cool,” Evans said after the game. “At the end of the day we want to get these fans wins.”

Evans brings an intensity to a Raptors team that has been missing toughness for years.

“He practices the same way he plays,” Triano said of his power forward. “He’s a guy that’s going to bring us energy. I think that when he left the game in the first quarter, that’s when the intensity dropped.

“We’ve got to have guys that match that and pick things up with the same intensity when he leaves the game.”

Evans was not the only player making a homecoming of sorts, as ex-Raptor Jason Kapono — who went the other way in the Evans deal — was playing his first game against his former team.

For Kapono, getting used to new surroundings and teammates is a feeling that is all too familiar.

“I’ve done this five times now, so I’m pretty good at it,” Kapono quipped when asked about the adjustment of moving to a new team.

Kapono spent the previous two seasons with Toronto, appearing in all but three games during his brief tenure.

The six-foot-eight Kapono — regarded as one of the best three-point shooters in the league — struggled to find a solid role in Toronto under head coaches Sam Mitchell and Triano. He averaged 7.7 points and 20.9 minutes per game during his stint with the Raptors.

For his part, Kapono didn’t blame anyone in Toronto for his struggles fitting in.

“Jay was great … he has a great mind for the game,” Kapono said of the Raptors’ rookie head coach. “He was just in a tough spot last year because we played for Sam for so many years and to come in and coach in the mid-season, it’s really hard to change things.”

This year Kapono finds himself on a green 76ers team that features five players who will be 23 or younger at tip-off on opening night and just two players in their thirties — Primoz Brezec and Elton Brand.

“It is a bit weird,” Kapono said of being a veteran despite only being in his sixth NBA season. “I consider myself young, but here I’m really old.”

The jewel of the 76ers rookie crop is Jrue Holiday who was drafted 17th overall in the 2009 NBA entry draft.

“I was a little anxious and excited at first but I started to feel a little more comfortable toward the end,” Holiday said after his first NBA game. “[Playing in the NBA] is a dream come true. There [are] a lot of great guys and great veterans here.”

Holiday finished with 7 points in 14:24 minutes.

“Jrue played really well. He went out there and played solid defence, which he’s known for,” fifth-year forward Andre Iguodala said. “He hit a couple of big threes for us. He’s going to just have to continue to improve and get better every game.”

At the other end of the court, DeMar DeRozan got his first taste of NBA action for the visiting Raptors, scoring nine points in 27:22 of action.

“It felt good to get out there and get the feel for a real NBA game with the whole crowd behind you,” the 20-year old forward said. “It showed me how physical and talented a lot of these players are. It’s a learning experience. I’ll get better every game.”

Although DeRozan was second on the team Tuesday night in playing time, Triano said he would limit the rookie’s minutes until he gets up to speed.

“I think defensively he did some good things, but he made some mistakes as well,” Triano said. “Our big thing with him is going to be limiting his minutes to where he can play with a real high intensity and play that way all the time.”

“Maybe we played him a few too many minutes tonight but we wanted to get him out there and see what he can do.”