Nine Years Later: Reliving Tracy McGrady's 13 points in 35 seconds to stun the Spurs

Kobe Bryant has already made his return, we've discussed the Rudy Gay trade at nauseum and James Dolan hasn't made a rash decision (yet) in the wake of Knickerbocker misery, so with little news to touch on today, how about we look back for a change instead of looking forward? And what better way to do it than looking back to nine years ago today - December 9, 2004 - also known as the night Tracy McGrady dropped 13 points in 35 seconds to help the Rockets stun the Spurs.

Before we really dig in, can we just take a moment to marvel at the head of hair on Manu Ginobili here? If you needed a cold reminder that nine years is a long damn time and that we've all aged drastically over that period, Manu's locks drive the point home.

Okay, now here we go...

With the Spurs up 76-68 with 42 seconds to go, the Rockets inbound the ball to McGrady, who is picked up immediately by Bruce Bowen. Bowen is then hit with a screen, and T-Mac gets the space he needs to dribble to the top of the arc and let it fly. Splash. 76-71 Spurs. 35 seconds left.

After the Spurs have extended their lead to seven, McGrady once again finds the ball in his hands and Bowen in his face. T-Mac actually bobbles the ball, but recovers just in time to use a Yao Ming screen on Bowen to get space and fire another three. Only this time, a younger Tim Duncan (slowly) closes out on McGrady, making the mistake of being caught in the air by the All-Star guard, who hits the three and draws the foul. Four-point play. 78-75 Spurs. We've got a one possession game.

Now the Rockets find themselves needing to find McGrady on an advanced inbounds, down five with just 16.2 seconds to go. It's amazing to look back and realize how close T-Mac and the Rockets came to never even having the opportunity to complete the comeback, whether it was his bobble just seconds before the four-point play or the near five-second violation and turnover on this inbounds play.

As we know, McGrady takes the inbounds just in time, fends off Tony Parker, dribbles right with Bowen hounding him on the left, gets to a spot he likes just above the three-point line, and yup, you guessed it, another three, this time with Bowen sure not to make contact. 80-78 Spurs, 11.2 seconds left.

But the Rockets have no timeouts, so they'll likely have to foul, hope the Spurs miss at least one free throw and then pray that they can go the length of the court for a game-tying or winning shot. This is where things really get crazy...

Brent Barry gets the ball into Devin Brown, a near 80 percent free throw shooter up to that point in his career, so the Rockets have to simply hope Brown uncharacteristically misses one of his attempts after they fou...OH MY BASKETBALL GODS BROWN IS DOWN, turnover, the Rockets have it and it's T-Mac of all people who scooped it up!

At this point anyone watching this game live on TNT (it was a Thursday night game) knew they were on the cusp of witnessing history, as there was only one plausible way for this game to end after all that had happened over the last 30 seconds or so of game time...

My favorite part of this last McGrady play in hindsight, other than the shot itself and the intense emotional response from him, is watching Tony Parker run like a man possessed to catch up with T-Mac, a helpless man desperate to prevent an inevitable destiny. As the shot goes up, McGrady has Parker on his back, a hand in his face, and two Spurs (one of which is Duncan) just a few feet away around the free throw line.

No problem. 81-80 Rockets. 1.7 seconds left.

What few people may remember is that Tony Parker's speed actually gave the Spurs a decent three-point Hail Mary heave to steal the game back, but it was not to be. Parker's shot falling would have slightly diminished McGrady's epic performance in the sense that T-Mac's heroics wouldn't have been in a memorable win, but if Parker had hit that shot at the buzzer, the finish to this game would have reached unbelievable levels of insane (if it hadn't already).

Game over. Rockets win 81-80, with McGrady outscoring the Spurs 13-4 over the final 35 seconds.

It wasn't a playoff game at The Garden, but McGrady's memorable performance is rivaled only by Reggie Miller's 'Eight Points, Nine Seconds' sequence against the Knicks in terms of timeless late game finishes.

Nine years to the day later, it's hard not to get amped up again just rewatching it all unfold.