HOUSTON (AP) – Tracy McGrady needed only 35 seconds to turn a sure loss into an improbable win and a listless 20-point night into one of the league’s most memorable clutch performances.

McGrady summoned the late-game magic of Reggie Miller on Thursday night, scoring 13 points in a final flurry, including the game-winning 3 with 1.7 seconds left to send the Houston Rockets to their biggest last-minute comeback in franchise history.

“I swear, I’ve never been a part of anything like that,” said McGrady, who finished with 33 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the 81-80 victory. “I don’t realize what I did.”

What the sleepy-eyed, 25-year-old All-Star did was put on a virtuoso finish that rivaled any of the top down-the-stretch performances in league history.

“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.”

With just over a minute left in what seemed to be another ugly home loss, the Rockets were being roundly booed following Sura’s airball on a 3-point attempt left Houston with a 74-64 deficit.

By that time, much of the crowd of 16,170 at Toyota Center had cleared. The rest were heading for the exits.

McGrady looked into those emptying stands, and for a brief moment, conceded defeat.

“I was like … we had our chances of winning the ballgame,” McGrady said. “But, hey, we played a great team and we kind of gave it away at the end.

“But, I like to say, those fans that walked out … there were thousands of them … they missed a good show.”

They sure did.

McGrady’s closing burst seemed to come from nowhere, especially considering he had scored only 20 points on 8-of-25 shooting up to that point and had briefly went to the locker room earlier in the quarter with stomach pains.

He returned, and with 35 seconds left, hit a 26-footer to cut the San Antonio lead to 76-71.

Spurs forward Devin Brown calmly sank two free throws to seemingly put the game out of reach, but McGrady responded with perhaps his most jaw-dropping basket of the night.

He pump-faked Tim Duncan off his feet, leaned into him to draw contact and tossed up an off-balance 26-footer as he tumbled to the court. The shot was good, and McGrady made the free throw for a rare four-point play to pull Houston within 78-75 with 24.3 seconds to go.

“I don’t know how I got the ball up, because he’s so tall,” McGrady said. “After that shot right there, that shot really got me going so far as my confidence. Every time I came up the court (afterward) I just felt like whenever I shot it (would go in).”

Duncan, who had a season-high seven blocks, couldn’t come up with an eighth when the Spurs needed it most.

And McGrady wasn’t done.

Duncan hit two free throws to give San Antonio an 80-75 lead, and McGrady quickly followed with a 3-pointer over Bruce Bowen with 11.2 seconds to go.

San Antonio called a timeout to set up the last play, hoping for a foul. But Brown fumbled away the ball under the basket, and McGrady scooped it up.

As he raced down the court with his eyes focused squarely on the basket, McGrady was thinking just one thing.

There was little doubt his running 27-foot jumper was going to go in. McGrady turned around, pumped his fist and soaked in the cheers.

San Antonio guard Tony Parker missed a final desperation heave, and McGrady was mobbed by teammates near midcourt, while red-and-white confetti poured from the roof. The Spurs watched the celebration then walked off the court in stunned silence.

“I haven’t seen anybody do something like that before,” Brown said. “He was just hitting shot after shot.”