T-Mac has flair for finishing touch

Tracy McGrady needed only 35 seconds to turn a sure loss into an improbable win and a listless 20-point night into one of the league's most memorable clutch performances.

McGrady summoned the late-game magic of Reggie Miller on Thursday night, scoring 13 points in a final flurry, including the game-winning 3 with 1.7 seconds left to send the Houston Rockets to their biggest last-minute comeback in franchise history.

"I swear, I've never been a part of anything like that," said McGrady, who finished with 33 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the 81-80 victory. "I don't realize what I did."

What the sleepy-eyed, 25-year-old All-Star did was put on a virtuoso finish that rivaled any of the top down-the-stretch performances in league history.

"We got a chance to see firsthand why he is one of the greatest players in the world," Rockets guard Bob Sura said. "To pull something like that out . . . amazing. It was unbelievable."

With just over a minute left in what seemed to be another ugly home loss, the Rockets were being roundly booed following Sura's airball on a 3-point attempt left Houston with a 74-64 deficit.

By that time, much of the crowd of 16,170 at Toyota Center had cleared. The rest were heading for the exits.

McGrady looked into those emptying stands, and for a brief moment, conceded defeat.

"I was like . . . we had our chances of winning the ballgame," McGrady said. "But, hey, we played a great team and we kind of gave it away at the end.

"But, I like to say, those fans that walked out . . . there were thousands of them . . . they missed a good show."

McGrady's closing burst seemed to come from nowhere, especially considering he had scored only 20 points on 8-of-25 shooting up to that point and had briefly went to the locker room earlier in the quarter with stomach pains.

He returned, and with 35 seconds left, hit a 26-footer to cut the San Antonio lead to 76-71.

Spurs forward Devin Brown calmly sank two free throws to seemingly put the game out of reach, but McGrady responded with perhaps his most jaw-dropping basket of the night.

He pump-faked Tim Duncan off his feet, leaned into him to draw contact and tossed up an off-balance 26-footer as he tumbled to the court. The shot was good, and McGrady made the free throw for a rare four-point play to pull Houston within 78-75 with 24.3 seconds to go.