CP3, Lowry are healthy and lurking - and might just swing the NBA playoffs

About four hours before Chris Paul appeared out of nowhere for a game-saving block in Dallas that extended the Houston Rockets' league-leading winning streak to eight, Kyle Lowry was putting the finishing touches on a 24-point, 10-assist, seven-rebound performance in a resounding Toronto Raptors victory at Miami.

On the surface, the efforts of Paul and Lowry, half a country apart, on a Sunday in March, are just footnotes amid the grind of a long regular season. But they're also indicative of what's been bubbling beneath the surface.

As another dramatic year winds down, with playoff races heating up and MVP candidates turning in all-time performances on a seemingly nightly basis, the late-season resurgences of two aging point guards may prove as significant as any other storylines developing around the NBA.

"Both of them can control a game, either offensively or defensively," Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni told theScore before a meeting with Lowry's Raptors last week. "They find a way to win. Both really great warriors and competitors. It probably starts with wits; they (know) different ways to solve a problem."

Aside from the aesthetic similarities in their games and their on-court temperaments, Paul and Lowry can find common ground in the misconceptions around their playoff resumes. Sure, Paul's made some uncharacteristically absent-minded mistakes in the heat of spring basketball, and Lowry's endured some woeful shooting nights in April and May, but in both cases, their struggles have been overblown in the face of their overall brilliance.

"Know-how," Rockets forward P.J. Tucker said when asked to describe the on-court impacts of Paul and Lowry, both of whom he's played with at some point over the last two years. "They know how to go out every night and lead teams to wins."

Paul, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, has certainly shouldered too much of the blame for the postseason failures of his teams. This is a guy who's averaged 21.4 points, 8.8 assists, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.2 steals on 48-38-85 shooting across 91 career playoff games.

Lowry, a five-time All-Star, has seen his postseason rep muddied by his ties to former Raptors teammate DeMar DeRozan, as well as by an unforgettably poor performance during a 2015 sweep at the hands of the Wizards. In the three postseasons that followed, during which only Golden State and Cleveland won more playoff series than Toronto, Lowry averaged 17.9 points, 6.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.6 steals while posting a stellar 62.6 true shooting percentage across the last two playoff runs.

Both point guards have also run into rotten injury luck at the worst possible times, either hobbling into the playoffs or suffering a mid-series injury - none of which have been more unfortunate or more impactful than Paul's season-ending hamstring ailment during last year's Western Conference finals, with the Rockets about to take a 3-2 series lead over the defending champion Warriors.

But this season, there are promising signs that their luck might be turning around. In the shadows of James Harden and Kawhi Leonard, Paul and Lowry - set to turn 34 and 33, respectively, between now and May - have quietly rounded into form over the last month or so. Instead of losing steam as the thaw of spring approaches, both players are elevating their games.

Paul's return six weeks ago, following another hamstring-related absence, has coincided with the Rockets' best and most consistent stretch of the season. Houston is 28-15 with their point guard in the lineup compared to 13-10 without him, while Paul's on/off net rating has been more than 11 points per 100 possessions better than Harden's during this eight-game winning streak (which began with the former pouring in 23 points and 17 assists in a Harden-less victory at Oracle Arena).

Paul still isn't creating quite the same trademark separation he's used to in the mid-range, and his shot has wavered again over the last week, but both he and his teammates sound encouraged by his recent play.

"I think we feel healthy," Paul told reporters last week after Houston's victory in Toronto. "As long as we're healthy, we're gonna be one of the best teams in the league."

Harden, meanwhile, in the midst of a historic individual season, referred to Paul as the team's leader.

"Leadership, playmaking, defense. He's obviously an important part of where we're going and what we're trying to do, and he looks good," Harden told theScore. "Even (when his shot isn't going), he's aggressive, and that's what we need from him."

Lowry missed 11 of the Raptors' first 41 games due to persistent back spasms, and didn't look like the cold-blooded floor general fans had become accustomed to when he did suit up. While still racking up assists, he wasn't getting to the rim, wasn't stepping into the fast-break, pull-up threes he uses to keep defenses off-kilter, and was passing up obvious scoring opportunities for lower-percentage looks from less-capable teammates.

Now, the Lowry of old has returned. Amid a stretch of 13 consecutive starts, marking his longest run of appearances since November, Lowry's averaging 17.2 points, 8.7 assists, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.4 steals in more than 36 minutes, while knocking down 41.1 percent of his 8.2 3-point attempts per game. The Raptors are 10-3 in those contests, and are now 23-4 when Lowry scores at least 15 points.

"He's been playing well all season to me," Leonard said of Lowry after an early-March victory over Portland. "He just had a couple weeks where he wasn't making shots."

Though Lowry can affect the game without scoring in a way few others can, those shots Leonard referenced are a sizable part of the equation for Toronto. The Raptors have a wealth of top-end talent led by a former Finals MVP, but Lowry must rise to the occasion as a consistent secondary scorer if they're to win the Eastern Conference for the first time in franchise history.

The Rockets, meanwhile, for all of Harden's indescribable offensive exploits, need a version of Paul that at least resembles the top-10 player who earned his "Point God" moniker over the last 14 years if they want any real shot at the Warriors again.

In that regard, both the Raptors and Rockets should be more optimistic about their chances than they would have been a month ago. While you might be distracted by younger stars, bigger names, and their own concerning mid-season health scares, Paul and Lowry are once again beginning to look like the type of lead guards who are capable of tilting a playoff series come April - if not an entire conference come May.

There's less fanfare around them than in previous years, which may suit them well given their past postseason disappointments. Both players are lurking in the shadows, like Paul on Sunday with the clock winding down in Dallas, waiting for their moments to jump into the spotlight.