Rookie Joey Graham was back in the starting lineup here last night as the Raptors brought the curtain down on the NBA pre-season and coach Sam Mitchell is hinting he could very well be there when things start for real next Wednesday.

Trying to find some balance between his first- and second-string units, the head coach thinks letting Graham replace Morris Peterson to start each game would do the trick.

"I'm just trying to look at some things," Mitchell said before the Raptors faced the Trail Blazers. "I'm trying to look at what combinations make us the best possible team. Do you try to front load all your experience with your starters and just have a bench of rookies and first year players (coming off the bench) or do you break it up a little bit?"

Byron Scott refuted a report in Sunday's New York Post that the Hornets are considering trade offers for starting center Jamaal Magloire.

In June, however, the Hornets explored trading Magloire to the Toronto Raptors for their two first-round picks. Magloire declined comment before Sunday's game.

Veteran guard Robert Pack was among three players released by the Raptors on Saturday.

Pack was trying to earn a spot on his ninth NBA team. He last played with the New Jersey Nets -- his second stint with the club -- in 2003-04 when he averaged 1.9 points and one assist in 26 games.

Pack totaled four points and four assists in three preseason games with the Raptors.

Toronto also released guard Tierre Brown and forward Bryant Matthews.

Brown averaged 9.8 points and 2.5 assists in four preseason games.

Vince Carter and Lamond Murray sometimes share stories about their days in Toronto. Usually there's a laugh, likely followed by a sigh of relief.
Like Carter, Murray is thrilled to be out of the Raptors organization as he returns to Toronto with the Nets for an exhibition game tonight.

"(The Raptors) don't know basketball up there," Murray said. "If you don't know what you're doing, you keep on guessing and that's all that's going on - guessing every year. I'm glad to be out of there. Like Vince, I'm not going to worry about them, I'm not even thinking about them."

Murray would like to erase all of his Toronto memories. He spent his three worst seasons in Toronto before being waived this summer and joining the Nets.

"I try not to complain," the 11-year veteran said. "I tried to be as professional as I could. They just did what they wanted to do. I'm trying not to get into this now and really air out how I really feel. There were many times I wanted to blow up."

He returned to Toronto last April 15 with a giant bull's-eye on his back, and Vince Carter took every sling and arrow they had for him.

The boos and insults were persistent, but that was only half the sensory overload. There were signs everywhere -- among them, "Half-man, half-snake," and "Vin-Sissy," and "Hey, I stole your mom's parking space" -- and somehow he blocked it all out.

"He handled it well," Jason Kidd recalled. "That was a big game for us. That game had a lot to do with our season, and it just showed the type of player Vince was in the second half of the season -- he was off the charts. And that game, he was definitely off the charts."

Actually, he was typically brilliant, scoring 39 points to help the Nets overcome a 16-point deficit and win by 11, which kept their playoff hopes alive in the final week of the regular season. Those 2 1/2 hours inside Air Canada Centre told the Nets all they needed to know about Carter, and perhaps it taught him a little about himself.

"It was fun," Carter said yesterday as he prepared for another visit to the ACC tomorrow night. "We were on the winning side and we were making our playoff push, so it was an important game for us for a lot of reasons. I actually had a pretty good night, from the second part of the first quarter."

"Don't get me wrong -- I miss the city," he said. "I'll be the first to tell you that. I really enjoyed it. I put a lot of time in there. I had a lot of places and people I was close friends with, like (minority owner) Larry Tanenbaum. I hated to leave the city. It was just something I had to do."

Veteran point guard Alvin Williams is a very happy man these days, and not just because his beloved Philadelphia Eagles are playing well.

After missing the entire 2004-05 season because of a knee injury, Williams said yesterday that he hopes to play in the Raptors' pre-season game against the New Jersey Nets on Wednesday.

"I'm looking forward to it," said Williams, who took part in the team practice yesterday. "I'm just trying to take it day by day and hopefully everything works out."

Maccabi Tel Aviv beat an NBA team for the first time in 27 years, topping the Toronto Raptors 105-103 on Sunday on Anthony Parker's jumper with 0.8 seconds left.

Maccabi, the winner of 45 of 51 Israeli titles and three of the last five Euroleague championships, had lost nine straight exhibition games against NBA teams since beating the then-champion Washington Bullets in 1978.

"This is history," Maccabi center Yaniv Green said. "They are still talking about [Maccabi's win over the Bullets] and I'm sure 20 years from now, they will still be talking about this one."

Parker, who played in the NBA for Philadelphia and Orlando, had 24 points, and Nikola Vujcic added 21 points and 10 rebounds. Chris Bosh had 27 points and 12 rebounds in 45 minutes for Toronto, and Jalen Rose had 18 points in 41 minutes.

"They played this game like it was their championship game, and rightfully so," Rose said. "Those guys are hungry for NBA jobs. You don't just go to Europe because you're turning down the NBA, you're going to Europe because you want to be in the NBA so when you're standing up against a guy in front of you that's is in the NBA, you want to prove to anybody that's watching that you're NBA-worthy."

They're the New York Yankees, the Montreal Canadiens and the old Boston Celtics all rolled into one. They're as dominant as any basketball team you'll find, a seamless steamroller that has won 45 of 51 Israeli titles and five European championships.

Players who wear the famous blue and yellow of Maccabi Tel Aviv, a team that's in Toronto today to take on the Raptors, say it's an incredible, almost indescribable experience. Asked if he's recognized a lot in Tel Aviv, guard Derrick Sharp nods.

"Driving. Walking. At nighttime. With black shades on. They notice you still. It's amazing over there.

"The fans are what's made the team," Sharp said yesterday before a tightly-guarded Maccabi practice at the Air Canada Centre, one in which security guards were summoned to shoo the media away from their third-deck perch lest they somehow learn a play or two and communicate it to the guys in purple and red. "The fans are the reason we were European champs three of the last five years. And they'll be here tomorrow. The game is just about sold out because there's a big Jewish community here. Everywhere we go, the fans follow."

"We get the VIP treatment," said former Raptor Maceo Baston, who joined Maccabi two years ago but was greeted warmly by Toronto staffers and former teammates yesterday. "It's like we're 15 Michael Jordans over there."

Some observers say Maccabi Tel Aviv has more followers than the Israeli national team. When Maccabi beat Bologna two years ago for the Euro title, more than 250,000 fans sardined themselves into a Tel Aviv park to watch the game on a giant TV screen.

Like the Yankees, Maccabi has been accused of buying championships. Some say it's to the detriment of Israeli basketball. But others say the publicity Maccabi has brought is priceless.

In what had to make him feel like he was reliving a nightmare, Sam Mitchell watched his Raptors hammered on the boards last night as they were so many nights a season ago, and he lit into his players afterwards because he's not going to watch them drilled on the boards without making his point.

Forget that it was a meaningless exhibition game with a makeshift team on the court most of the night. The fact the Raptors were outrebounded 54-37 by the Utah Jazz in a 102-101 overtime loss made the second-year coach irate.

"Hopefully, someone's walking around Canada or the U.S. who wants a job," Mitchell said after his team lost a gaffe-filled affair that featured 77 fouls and 55 turnovers and resembled a bad summer league game at times.

"It blows my mind."

The Raptors lost on a Robert Whaley tip with less than a second left in overtime and despite the fact Toronto had a small lineup ? gaurds Tierre Brown, Robert Pack and Jose Calderon, along with Charlie Villanueva and Aaron Williams ? on the floor, Mitchell wasn't going to accept lack of size as a reason for not getting the missed shot.

"I don't know of one skill for that, other than toughness," he said. "You've just got to want it more."

And if no one does, Mitchell's hanging the Help Wanted sign out.

"Maybe we just don't have a guy who can do that, maybe we have to start searching high and low to try to find a guy who can rebound," he said. "All I know is this: If you're a big guy and want to get a job, want to play defence and rebound ... "

Rookie Robert Whaley's tip-in with 0.8 seconds left in overtime lifted the Utah Jazz over the Toronto Raptors 102-101 on Wednesday night in the preseason opener for both teams.

Rookie C.J. Miles, who led the Jazz with 14 points, sent the game into overtime with a 3-pointer with 2.4 seconds left.

Tierre Brown had 24 points and seven assists and rookie Charlie Villanueva added 15 points for the Raptors.

Villanueva, the seventh overall pick in the draft, gave Toronto a 101-100 lead with 17 seconds left in overtime by grabbing an offensive rebound and scoring. He also blocked Miles' short jumper with less than eight seconds left, but Whaley tipped in the winner. Whaley finished with eight points and eight rebounds.

Brown's attempt at the buzzer rimmed in and out.

Utah's Deron Williams, the third overall pick in the draft, had five turnovers in just 16 minutes. Toronto's Joey Graham, the 16th pick in the draft, didn't play in the second half because of left knee tendinitis.