HOUSTON — Tracy McGrady scooped up a loose ball and hit a running 3-pointer with 1.7 seconds left, helping the Houston Rockets complete a rally from a 10-point deficit in the final minute for an 81-80 win over San Antonio on Thursday night.
McGrady scored 13 points in the final 35 seconds, including four difficult 3s, to finish with 33 points, eight rebounds and five steals in the biggest last-minute comeback for Houston.
The Rockets have won three straight for the first time this season, and snapped an eight-game losing streak against their I-10 rivals. The Spurs lost their second straight, a night after a tough defeat against Seattle in San Antonio.
This defeat, however, may be much harder for the Spurs to swallow.
With just over a minute left in what seemed to be another ugly home loss, the Rockets were being roundly booed following Bob Sura's airball on a 3-point attempt with Houston trailing 74-64.
Then, Yao Ming followed McGrady's miss on a layup, Scott Padgett stole an inbounds pass and went in for a dunk and the Rockets were finally within striking distance. McGrady completed a four-point play with 24.3 seconds left to pull Houston within 78-75.
Tim Duncan hit two free throws to give San Antonio an 80-75 lead, but McGrady quickly responded with a leaping, 3-pointer over Bruce Bowen with 11.2 seconds to go.
San Antonio called a timeout, but Devin Brown fumbled away the ball under the basket on the next possession and McGrady stole it away on his way to the game-winning 27-footer.
SUPERSONICS 107, MAVERICKS 102: At Dallas, Rashard Lewis refused to let Seattle give away a game it had dominated.
The small forward erased a fourth-quarter deficit then protected the lead with a high-flying baseline dunk, a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired and two free throws with 18.5 seconds to go in a 107-102 victory over Dallas.
One night after becoming the first team this season to win in San Antonio, Seattle won its fourth straight and ninth in 10 games to reclaim the NBA's best record at 17-3.
Dallas lost at home for the fifth time this season, matching last year's total in just 12 games. More troubling for the Mavericks is that all the losses have come against winning teams.
Ray Allen scored 22 points for Seattle and Vladimir Radmanovic had 18, including 5-of-7 on 3-pointers. Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 27 points.
TRAILBLAZERS 89, CELTICS 87: At Portland, Shareef Abdur-Rahim hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to lead Portland to victory over Boston. Boston led 87-84 with 29.3 seconds left, but Zach Randolph made two free throws to make it a one-point game. Boston then turned over the ball over on a shot-clock expired leaving Portland with the chance to win.