Not that you needed a reminder or anything, but Tracy McGrady was one of the best scorers to ever do it in the NBA. On this day, 17 years ago, T-Mac led the Rockets to one of the most epic comebacks in recent NBA history in his first season in Houston.
On Dec 9. 2004, the Rockets trailed the Spurs by eight points with only 49 seconds left in the fourth quarter. McGrady decided to put the team on his back, scoring 13 points in only 33 seconds to push Houston past a legendary Spurs team who went on to win the NBA Championship that season.
T-Mac actually was struggling prior to his scoring outburst and was a big reason for the Rockets being down so late in the game. Things got rolling when Tony Parker threw a careless pass to Scott Padgett, leading to an easy dunk to cut the lead down to six. The Spurs then hit two free throws to bring the game back up to a double-digit lead.
McGrady then brought the Rockets back within five, hitting a contested three. After another two free throws from San Antonio, McGrady connected on a four-point play after Tim Duncan fouled him while drilling his second three to cut the lead to three.
After Duncan hit two more free throws from the charity stripe, T-Mac took the ball off an awful in-bound play to connect on another heavily contested three-ball right in the face of Bruce Bowen -- for the third straight time. Now San Antonio is down two with only 11 seconds left. So after a timeout from Greg Popovich, you would think all they needed to do was inbound the ball, draw a foul, and hit both free throws to seal the victory. Well... it didn't quite work out that way.
The Spurs were able to inbound the ball to Devin Brown before Brown lost it in the corner, leading to McGrady stealing the ball, running up the court, and hitting yet another contested three to give the Rockets the victory over the Spurs 81-80 -- all while creating one of the greatest moments in NBA history.
To add more context as to how great of a moment this was, the 04' Spurs team was arguably one of the best defenses of all time. T-Mac was also guarded by the pesky Bruce Bowen, who made eight All-NBA Defensive teams during his career and got praise for his defensive prowess from the late Kobe Bryant. T-Mac was truly special in his short injury-riddled career.
Follow Jasper Jones on Twitter: @jonesj2342
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram