CHARLOTTE, N.C. – As Hornets players shuffled in and out of their locker room prior to a Tuesday night contest against the San Antonio Spurs, one thing was constant.

Professional basketball players prepare for games in different ways. Some sit in their locker and listen to music. Some eat. Some nap. Some study. Some spend pre-game in the training room, getting taped up and stretched out. But whenever a Hornet entered the locker room, if they glanced up at a pair of flat screen TV’s, they would see individual scouting reports on each Spur. If they watched long enough, Rudy Gay’s name – identified by the Hornets’ scouts as “SPURS PERSONNEL NO. 74” – would pop up.

Highlights of Gay from this season played, and descriptions of his arsenal and tendencies appeared on the lower third of the screen. “Left hand drive, looking to shoot from mid-range.” “Can score from all three levels.” “Scorer’s mentality.” “Hot guy in the corner.” “Big physical wing.”

The Hornets had the book on Gay, and still, he came in and gave them work. The Spurs lost in overtime that night, on March 26, but Gay had another impressive performance off the bench, tallying 16 points, nine rebounds and two assists.

Now 32-years-old and in his 13th season in the league, everyone knows what the 6-foot-8 UConn product is capable of. There’s plenty of film on his strengths, his weaknesses and his tendencies.

And still, they can’t stop him.

With about four minutes left in the third quarter of the game against the Hornets, Gay caught the ball in the right corner. He looked up and Frank Kaminsky stood in his way. Gay drove with his left hand, made a quick move that caused the big man to stumble and then drained a mid-range jumper over him.

“Rudy is so tall, man. Like, you can’t block his shot. His release point is super high,” said fellow Husky turned Hornets star Kemba Walker. “He’s been doing this for a while. Rudy has been a great scorer for many years.”

But there’s something different about Gay this season.

Quietly, on this Spurs team jockeying for one of the final spots in the playoffs, Gay is having the most efficient season of his career.

From the floor, Gay made 50.4 percent of all of his shot attempts. From three-point range, he’s connecting on 40.2 percent of his shots. Both of those marks are career-highs.

Gay’s previous high marks in those stats came in the 2010-11 season, when he shot 47.1 percent from the floor and 39.6 percent from behind the arc. Back then, he was a high-usage wing doing the bulk of the scoring for a Memphis Grizzlies team that lost in the Western Conference semifinals.

Sure, his points-per-game average this year of 13.6 isn’t anything to write home about. That’s actually the third-lowest of his NBA career. But no longer is Gay a high-volume scorer who needs to have the ball in his hands a lot to make an impact on the game. And no longer is he the No. 1 option on offense.

On the Spurs, Gay is just a piece in the machine. And despite some of the parts changing, Gregg Popovich has kept that machine churning for quite some time. Typically, it’s brought the best out of veterans like Gay.

“I’m just taking my time,” Gay said. “I’m taking the shots they give to me. I’m playing off of LaMarcus (Aldridge) and DeMar (DeRozan). I’m just taking good shots.”

The other thing Gay is doing this season at a rate he never has before is cleaning the glass. He averaged 6.8 rebounds per-game, a mark that is also a career-high for him in a single season. The Hornets game was the fourth straight that he had grabbed nine boards.

Gay knows that there’s something about this Spurs team that’s been working for him. But when asked specifically what that was, he couldn’t quite put it his finger on it.

“What’s different? I don’t know. I’m going to need some time to think about that one,” Gay said. “When I’m into one team, I just try to figure out what’s going on there. I think that’s something I’ll think about in hindsight.”

Popovich thought the answer was simple.

“Well, he’s been healthy,” the longtime Spurs head coach said. “He came off that injury last year and tried to work himself back into shape. He’s got all the rust off, so to speak. This year, he’s just continued that process and he’s done a really good job of it.”

In January 2017, Gay tore his left Achilles tendon while playing with the Sacramento Kings. In the third quarter of a game against the Indiana Pacers, Gay caught the ball in the right corner and went to drive with his right hand, but when he planted and pushed off his right foot, something was off. Gay slipped, wiped out and was in obvious pain. Three men had to carry him off the court.

While recovering over the summer, Gay bet on himself in free agency. Instead of taking a long-term deal, he signed a shorter contract with the Spurs that paid him about $5 million less annually than what he was making in Sacramento.

For the Spurs, the risk was simple: They were paying low for damaged goods. But if Gay got healthy, he could be a real weapon in a playoff series.

As he continued to recover, Gay struggled in his first season in San Antonio, averaging 11.5 points per-game while shooting nearly a career-worst 31.3 percent from behind the arc. He missed 25 games.

In year two, Gay is healthy, and he’s become what the Spurs thought he would – a versatile role player who can knock down outside shots, pass and rebound. At this stage of his career, Gay doesn’t need to be the first option on offense.

In the fourth quarter against the Hornets, Gay grabbed a defensive rebound and flipped it to DeRozan. Gay then jogged to the corner and was wide-open for a three-pointer, but DeRozan shot anyways and made the basket, giving the Spurs a 106-104 lead. Gay ran to him, slapped his hand and gave him a chest bump.

But Gay has shown, if needed, that he can still be a go-to scorer. In nine games this year, he’s scored more than 20 points, including a 31-point performance against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Sometimes Gay starts, sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes he plays in crunch time, sometimes he doesn’t. Whatever Popovich needs, Gay is there to oblige. At his age, he is still coachable.

“I always loved the way Rudy played,” Walker said. “He’s one the reasons why I went to UConn, actually. It’s always fun going against him. That’s like my brother right there.”

Coming off one of the most efficient seasons of his career, Gay is due for a payday this offseason. Taking the short-term gig in San Antonio will have paid off for him, not only for his bank account, but in helping reshape his game too.

Before then, Their Game 1 win over the Nuggets wasn’t a shock, despite their seven seed. The Spurs have shown they can play with the top dogs in the West. They’ve beaten the Warriors twice, the Nuggets twice, the Blazers twice and the Rockets once.

“We got to play smart, play together better and play more defense,” Gay said. “That’s what it is.”

Gay is helping them do all of it.