This paper considers the performance analysis of sparse code multiple access (SCMA) with receive diversity arrays and randomly deployed users in a cellular uplink scenario. The impact of path loss on the performance of SCMA is characterized, by assuming independent Rayleigh fading and joint maximum likelihood (ML) receivers. A tight upper bound on the probability of symbol detection error is derived, and the achievable diversity and coding gains are investigated. The analytical results are validated by using simulations, and show that a diversity order which is equal to the product of the number of receive antennas and the signal-space diversity can be achieved, and the large-scale path-loss decreases only the coding gain.