T-Mac Breaks Down That 13-Point Game
Tracy McGrady talks about what was going through his mind during a game against the Spurs.
This was one of Tracy McGrady’s most legendary performances.
In 2004, the Hall of Famer pulled off a nearly impossible comeback against the San Antonio Spurs.
McGrady, at the time, was playing in his first season with Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets.
The team started the season off on rocky tracks and they needed this win.
They were recently on a 5-game losing streak and needed to string a 3-game winning streak together to get back on track and a win on this day would’ve given them their third straight win and their swagger back.
But they were playing against a powerhouse and it was not going to be easy.
The Rockets started the game off well, as they led after the first quarter. But once the second quarter began, things fell apart.
It started with Manu Ginobili scoring 10 points in the second quarter and cutting the Rockets’ lead down to 4.
Then, in the third quarter, Tim Duncan came in and scored 12 points and blocked 3 shots. His phenomenal play helped the Spurs get the lead on their opponents.
By the end of the third, the Spurs were leading 58-54.
It was still anyone’s game, but San Antonio had the upper hand entering the fourth and final quarter.
However, the trend continued and the Spurs looked like they were going to be the victors… until the last 50 seconds of the game that is.
Feeling a sense of urgency, McGrady entered the zone and completely destroyed the Spurs’ defence.
He scored 13 points in 33 seconds to help Houston win the game by one point (81-80).
Watch his handy work below:
If you’re like me, you have probably wondered what was going through his mind as all of this went down.
Well, McGrady was on an episode of The Young Man and the Three and said that he’s not sure what or how that happened.
“I was struggling, you know, shooting the ball that game for three quarters,” he said. “But we were still in the game. And fourth quarter come -35 seconds left, bro. I don’t know what came over me, you know what I mean? I literally don’t know what came over.”
McGrady then continued to break down that last little bit of the game. He talked about the shots he took and how trust secured the Rockets’ victory.
“I think when you look back at it, it’s the resilience that was shown in that moment of not shooting the ball well, but my teammates still, you know, relied on me to will us to a victory.”
He also talked about how after he made a four-play play, he knew he wasn’t going to miss anymore.
“Once I hit that second shot, which was a 4-point play on Tim Duncan, I knew I wasn’t missing,” he said. “Because you -NBA players… Like, guys can not have their supreme confidence throughout the whole game. Like sometimes, you lose like, ‘Damn, I ain’t really feeling it right now. My shot don’t feel good’ and you hesitant on some shots. So, you lose a little bit of that umph that you have as a player. But when I hit that 4-point play, I got all my juice back. All my superpowers just came back and I’m like, ‘I ain’t missing.’”
McGrady ended the game with 33 points on 41.4 percent shooting. But more than half of his points came from the fourth quarter.
He scored 17 points on 50 percent shooting. But what’s even more amazing is that 13 of those 17 points were scored in the final minute of the game.
It was truly a masterpiece.