Early in his career, Lowry’s big-scoring games often came in losses. In his first year as a starter in Houston, the Rockets were 3-7 in his 10 highest-scoring games. In his first year in Toronto, the Raptors were 1-9. Last year, though, the Raptors were 7-3 when Lowry went off for 28 or more, but also 4-1 when he scored fewer than half that many. In the team’s opening-night win over the Detroit Pistons, he only scored 10 points (matching his season low from a year ago), but the Raptors won handily, with DeMar DeRozan (40) and Jonas Valanciunas (32) becoming the first pair of teammates to top 40 and 30 points, respectively, in the first game of an NBA season. “I didn’t shoot the ball well [in the 18-point win], and if I had, we would have won by 30,” Lowry says. “But sometimes it’s just: Don’t get in your own way. Don’t try to do too much. You have to find a balance. Is it my game? Is it their game? Is it my game and then their game? It’s a thin line, but it’s a thick line at the same time . . . I’m conscious of it all the time. Before the game, during the game and even after, when it’s over.”

Billups says that after his drubbing at the hands of Stockton, he became much more of a student of his craft. By the time he was in his mid-30s, he did the same things to younger guards that Stockton had done to him that afternoon in Minnesota. He’d let his man think he was containing a certain play or move just so he’d have a counter he could go to when he really needed it. He was like a pitcher changing speeds, mixing up locations and then bringing heat when the hitters start sitting on breaking balls. “It’s a great feeling, man,” he says. “You’re just controlling the game.”

Lowry plays some of the same tricks: “I might let you cut me off, because I know that will mean one of my teammates is open, or I’ll give myself up in a game to make sure my guys get going . . . You let it look like it’s going to work, but at the end of the day, I’m playing chess against their coaches.”