DeMar DeRozan spent New Year's Eve watching Synergy clips of himself looking for ways to get better.

“New Year’s? I was watching film that night,” DeRozan said Thursday. “I probably watched film for about two hours. A lot of my mistakes, a lot of my decision-making, a lot of little things like that.”

DeRozan believes his improved play can be attributed to improved study habits.

“I watch film with the coaches and everything but now I’ve taken it more on myself,” he said. “Just listening to older guys — Kobe watches a lot of film — just from the upper echelon players that do more than the average player does, watching film, watching little detail things. Mentally that helps you and that’s something I didn’t understand my first couple of years.

“I pay attention to all my mistakes and try to learn from them more than anything.”