"There were two plays in the Raptors' 93-84 loss to the Atlanta Hawks here Monday that DeMar DeRozan will watch and he will wince when he sees them and he will hear his coach in his ear saying, "Yeah, that's what I mean."

They were, in the school vernacular of the day, "learning opportunities" and the Raptors can only hope the young shooting guard emerges better off from the roughest patch of his NBA career."