[Chron Articles] McGrady shows why he's special.

McGrady shows why he's special
By RICHARD JUSTICE
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/2940953

Tracy McGrady seemed more dazed than happy, more exhausted than exhilarated.

He said the things he was supposed to say but admitted they were words without meaning.

"I don't realize what I just did," he said.

What he'd just done is put together 35 of the greatest closing seconds in NBA history.

What he'd done is turn defeat into victory and a mortal into a legend.

Welcome to Houston, T-Mac.

He'd scored 13 points in the final 35 seconds. He'd hit — count 'em — four 3-point jumpers in that stretch. He'd also hit a foul shot.

In the final surreal seconds, as arguably the best team in the NBA desperately tried to close out a game they knew was theirs, McGrady scraped the ball from Devin Brown with 7.9 seconds remaining, dribbled down the court and nailed another 3-pointer with 1.7 seconds left.

By that time, those who hadn't given up and left, seemingly knew how it was going to end.

"That's why he came here," Rockets guard Andre Barrett said. "To us, it wasn't much of a surprise."

The Rockets had no timeouts, but they had the ball back where they wanted it.

His final shot was in from the moment it left his right hand.

Rockets 81, Spurs 80.

Hard to believe
The Rockets celebrated as if they'd won a championship because they didn't know what else to do.

"The fans that walked out, they missed a good show," McGrady said.

Later inside their locker room, they didn't really know what to say. McGrady kept trying to come up with words and couldn't.

"I felt like anything I threw up there was going to go in," he said. "The rim felt really big to me out there."

He paused and smiled.

"It really hasn't hit me," he said.

He may not understand next week or next year, either. He may not ever understand.

Years from now when they attempt to put his career in perspective, when they talk about the scoring titles and the playoff appearances and all the rest, they'll mention this astonishing night.

A rare talent
If you'd begun to wonder why the Rockets thought he was so special, if you'd begun to second-guess the trade that brought McGrady here, this was for you, too.

He's unlike almost any other player. Because he's special. Because he's capable of doing things that make you shake your head and telephone your best friend.

Maybe only Kobe Bryant could have closed a game like this, could have taken the final moments of garbage time and turned it into a legend.

Three hours before the game, Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson sat in his office looking like the loneliest man on earth.

He'd overhauled his team during the summer, and then in the first six weeks of the season had watched his team stumble badly.

There hadn't been enough rebounding. Yao Ming had played inconsistently. Coach Jeff Van Gundy kept mixing and matching the combinations.

Dawson knew some fans were beginning to question the deal that sent Steve Francis to Orlando and brought McGrady, a two-time scoring champion, to Houston.

"Listen," Dawson said, "Tracy has been even better than we hoped. We heard all that stuff about him being selfish. He's been nothing but great."

Dawson said he continued to believe that once McGrady and Yao became comfortable with one another, the Rockets could still make a playoff push.

He was encouraged that McGrady and Yao had spent time at McGrady's home and that they were still learning to play together.

Van Gundy was becoming convinced of other things. He'd worked the higher energy players — Barrett, Bob Sura, Ryan Bowen — into the playing rotation.

Even if the Rockets weren't going to win, they were going to play hard and look like they cared. At times this season, they'd seem nonchalant, and he wasn't going to accept that.

Which brings us to Thursday.

Even if the Rockets hadn't won, they'd have pleased Van Gundy in some ways. They'd won the boards again. They'd had more steals. They'd gotten the ball where it was supposed to go.

They were on their way to losing because they shot 35.4 percent from the field. McGrady and Yao combined for 60 of their 81 points and took 44 of their 82 shots.

Maybe they'll have another scoring option when Jim Jackson returns, but as Van Gundy said, "Sometimes when you work hard, you get miracles."

The Rockets got one Thursday night. They named it Tracy McGrady.

richard.justice@chron.com

 

T-Mac performs a miracle
Rockets star scores 13 points in final 35 seconds, including game-winning 3
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/2940954

They kept saying they were in it, that they still had a chance. But the Rockets could not have foreseen this. Forget seen. Few could have even imagined it. Jeff Van Gundy kept shouting, "There's still time, there's still time." But there were just seconds and not many of those.

Then, suddenly everything -- even a "miracle" as Van Gundy cheerily would call it -- seemed possible, even if the miracle worker himself could not believe it.

Maybe it was a miracle, but it did happen. Tracy McGrady flew through a 35-second, 13-point burst of lightning strikes capped by his last of four rapid-fire 3-pointers with 1.7 seconds left to send the Rockets to an 81-80 shocker over the Spurs on Thursday night.

"The way I was feeling those last couple seconds, I felt like anything I would throw up, would go in," McGrady said. "The rim felt really big to me out there.

"To come back and pull out the game, all my teammates jumping on me, I swear I've never been a part of anything like that. That was the best feeling to me, to have my teammates embrace me, jumping on me like that. That was a great feeling. And for all those fans that left, gosh you missed a great game."

They missed seeing the Rockets score 17 points in 52.4 seconds. They didn't see McGrady score eight points in 8.9 seconds or exceed Reggie Miller's legendary 1995 playoff run of three last-minute 3s to beat the Knicks.

But as it is with the most celebrated of performances, far more than the 16,170 that had been at Toyota Center will long repeat the story of the phenomenon they saw. And if they need just a little more to tell, McGrady did all that after he was forced off the court and to the locker room in the fourth quarter with stomach pains.

"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."

Trailing by 10 with 62 seconds left, the Rockets scored 17 points in the final 52 seconds. McGrady nailed one trey as he drew Tim Duncan into a foul for a four-point play and drained his last on a 6.2-second rush up the court to pull up over Brent Barry and hit the shot that by then he could not miss.

The Spurs needed only to protect a 10-point cushion for just 62 seconds when the Rockets scored more points in the next 36 seconds than they had in the previous 11 minutes.

Asked how such a thing could happen, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, "How the hell do I know?

"Guys get hot. He's a great player. A lot of things had to happen for the game to turn out that way."

As much as McGrady did, by itself it would not have been enough.

Yao Ming, who had 27 points and 10 rebounds to help keep the Rockets in the game, followed McGrady's last miss of the night with a slam. Scott Padgett stole Tony Parker's inbound pass and took it to a dunk, cutting the lead to six with 47.3 seconds left.

While Spurs forward Devin Brown, an 85.2-percent free throw shooter, sank four consecutive free throws to seemingly put the game on ice, McGrady hit a 3 over Bruce Bowen, one of the league's top defenders, and then drained another 3 while falling sideways to draw a foul on Duncan.

"I knew he thought I was going to pull up when I came off that screen," McGrady said. "I knew I could bait him on the pump fake. He went for it. I don't know how I got the ball off. After that, every time I came up the court, I felt whatever I shot would go in."

When McGrady added the free throw, the Rockets had rushed to within three with 24.3 seconds left.

The Spurs still seemed safe when, with 16.2 seconds remaining Duncan, a 65.4-percent free throw shooter, made both attempts. That gave Duncan a 26-point, 18-rebound, seven blocked shots night and gave the Spurs a five-point lead.

But McGrady did it again, finding just enough room over Bowen to pull up from 26 feet and nail his third consecutive trey, cutting the San Antonio lead to 80-78 with 11.2 seconds left.

"T-Mac got hot for them, was in a great rhythm and made some tough shots," Bowen said. "He was magical out there tonight."

This time, Van Gundy called off the quick foul. Instead, with Brown expecting to be sent to the line, he was pressured by Padgett until he slipped, losing the ball with 7.9 seconds left.

McGrady scooped it up and headed up the court with one idea.

"I knew were down two," McGrady said. "The only thing I was thinking about was a 3. I didn't want to get the ball and try to tie the ballgame up. I was going to take my chances going for the 3 and go for the win."

By then, what had seemed impossible, was certain.

"It was wild," Rockets forward Ryan Bowen said. "Just watching Tracy make all those shots was pretty amazing. He hit a couple and you think, `Are we going to make it close.' That's probably what a lot of people thought. `At least we're going to make it look good.' But Tracy had other intentions -- to win that thing for us. It was pretty amazing."

jonathan.feigen@chron.com

 

Yao getting down on home court
Rockets center knows he needs to take it on road
By MEGAN MANFULL
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/2940957

Yao Ming understands he has to do it in every NBA arena. The Rockets need his shooting touch. They need his rebounds. And at home, they have been getting both.

In the past three games, Yao has strung together his best outings of the season, highlighted by his 27-point, 10-rebound game in the Rockets' thrilling 81-80 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night.

Yao has averaged 22.7 points and 10.7 rebounds in the past three home games — all of which the Rockets won. In the past three road games, Yao averaged 17 points and nine rebounds.

But Yao's improvement in the past three at home isn't restricted by numbers. His energy and defense has been just as noticeable.

"His home and road stats, the differences are startling," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "But you know what? Yao was more energetic guarding pick-and-rolls tonight. (Tony) Parker is coming at you with a head of steam. (Yao's) trying, he's trying."

It was Yao's consistent effort throughout the game that helped the Rockets remain close enough to allow Tracy McGrady to make his miracle comeback by scoring 13 points in the final 35 seconds.

Yao scored six of his points in the final quarter. His final basket was a follow-up dunk from a missed layup by McGrady with 52.9 seconds to go and cut the deficit to 74-66. The dunk was the Rockets' first basket since Yao made a tip shot off a McGrady miss with 2:38 left in the game, making it 73-64.

He finished, hitting 9-of-15 from the field and had two blocked shots. He also collected his seventh double double of the season.

The past three performances have made Yao's outings from just a week ago seem much more distant. Against Utah on Nov. 26, Yao had only nine points and four rebounds. The next night against Denver, Yao had eight points and six rebounds.

"I think it's getting better because I just shoot the ball when I feel comfortable and try to get every rebound," Yao said. "And that's it. That's what I have to do."

It's Yao's recent outings coupled with solid performances from McGrady that the Rockets have been waiting for all season. The two players have scored more than 20 points in the same game only five times this season.

With so many players injured and the Rockets forced to play reserves not known for scoring, the Rockets need the offensive presence of Yao and McGrady.

"When you get both of those two together, it makes it tough," Rockets forward Ryan Bowen said.

Yao understands more responsibility rests on his shoulders with so many players being hurt, including starting forward Jim Jackson, who has missed two games with back spasms. Yao said it's the newcomers in the rotation that have helped the team improve.

"We have a lot of bench players like Andre (Barrett) that plays really hard," Yao said. "It changes our opponent's defense. He can drive and shoot well. And Scott Padgett, he stole the ball at the last minute for us to make the quick score. All of those players made our team change three games ago."

Whatever the reason for Yao's big games, the Rockets want to make sure it continues. At some point, they know they will have to leave Toyota Center again and Yao will need to take his game with him.

"If you want to be a great team in the NBA, you have to play great both sites, on the road and at home," Yao said. "That's what I need to learn."

For now, the Rockets are simply thrilled to have Yao at home. Nine of the team's next 12 games are at Toyota Center, and the players have every intention of looking to the middle. "Our offense runs through him and Tracy," Juwan Howard said.

megan.manfull@chron.com