Twenty years after the most theatrical moment in Houston sports history, Mario Elie's "Kiss of Death" in the 1995 NBA playoffs, the breath of life still courses through Houston's 2015 Rockets as they attempt to re-create the improbable Sunday afternoon at Toyota Center.

Most of America went to bed Thursday expecting the Rockets to join them in dreamland, facing almost-certain elimination from the Western Conference semifinals against the Los Angeles Clippers. Instead, the team rallied from a 19-point deficit in the wee hours of Friday morning to force a deciding Game 7.

Under any circumstances, the Rockets' comeback would be something to treasure for a city thirsting for a championship. That it happens 20 years since the 1995 Rockets won a second straight title evokes nostalgia, hope and electric anticipation as Game 7 approaches.

Even an old campaigner like Rockets coach Kevin McHale, who experienced eight Game 7s in his Hall of Fame career with the Boston Celtics, was feeling it as the Rockets wrapped up practice Saturday afternoon.

"You live for those moments to go out there and play basketball," McHale said. "There is a joy and a calm that comes over you when you do something really, really well, when you do something you've done since you were a little kid. You find that spot, and you play well.

"It's been a long, long time since I played, but I still remember the feeling, the butterflies and the anxiousness of … just wanting to get going."

Sunday's victor advances to the Western Conference finals against the Golden State Warriors. The winner of that series will face the Cleveland Cavaliers or Atlanta Hawks in the NBA Finals beginning June 4.

If the Rockets can keep winning, if they can be the second coming of Clutch City, they can walk the streets of Houston as Elie walks them today, with the smile of a winner and, as coach Rudy Tomjanovich said of the 1994-95 Rockets, the heart of a champion.

Not a day passes, Elie said, that someone doesn't ask him to relive his deciding 3-pointer that kept the Rockets on track toward the 1995 title.

"Only about a million and one times," Elie said. "It's on YouTube, and they show it on TV during the playoffs each year, and it's cool to see. I have 12-year-old triplets, and my kids don't think the old man could play. I can show them on video that I was pretty good."

Some similarities

As you search for the YouTube link, some details on Elie's "Kiss of Death": It took place May 20, 1995, in Game 7 of the Rockets-Suns series at America West Arena in Phoenix. Houston trailed three games to one in that best-of-seven series but came back to win Games 5 and 6, as did the current Rockets after dropping three of four to the Clippers.

Only four teams in NBA history had won Game 7 on the road before 1995, and the Rockets were in dire straits when Phoenix guard Kevin Johnson, who scored 46 points in the game, stepped to the line with 21.6 seconds left for two free throws, having made 20 in a row.

Johnson made the first but missed the second, leaving the game tied at 110-110. After a timeout, the Rockets brought the ball up the court, and Robert Horry threw a cross-court pass to Elie, who was unguarded near the baseline next to the Rockets' bench.

"Robert threw a high pass, and I had to jump to get it," Elie said. "But I had time to gather myself and get a great look at the basket."

After he hit the shot, giving the Rockets a 113-110 lead, Elie ran back up the court, in the direction of the Phoenix bench, placed two fingers of his right hand to his lips and blew a kiss toward the Suns - specifically, toward Phoenix backup center Joe Kleine.

"He started that in Game 5," Elie said. "It started as fun, but I got the last kiss. It was just emotion, friendly competition, and us going at each other for the second year in a row."

Houston went on to win 115-114 and then beat the San Antonio Spurs in six games and the Orlando Magic in four games to win the title.

Elie's shot remains a treasured part of Houston sports lore, although Elie said it is not his favorite memory of his years in Houston. His favorite moment, he said, was being named by fans to the Rockets' 30-year anniversary team in 1997.

"Standing there with Elvin Hayes and Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson … for fans to vote me and (1995 teammate) Sam Cassell (today an assistant coach with the Clippers) in with that group meant a lot," he said. "I was always loyal to the fans of Houston for knowing that I was a guy who was always out there playing his butt off."

While it did not occur in a Game 7, the current Rockets team had an improbable moment of its own with its comeback Thursday in Los Angeles, beating the Clippers with its leading scorer, James Harden, on the bench and its top rebounder, Dwight Howard, held scoreless during the fourth quarter.

Plenty in reserve

Just as Elie stepped up after playing in the shadow of superstar teammates Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, Thursday's comeback was led by December acquisitions Josh Smith and Corey Brewer, both of whom scored 19 points and combined for 29 of the Rockets' 40 fourth-quarter points.

Such performances by non-marquee players, former Rockets guard Kenny Smith said, generate the kind of momentum that can lift the team to a championship.

"Everyone is engaged in this series now," said Smith, now a Turner Sports analyst. "It takes an unlikely hero to get everyone engaged. If the star has a great game, if Dwight Howard has 25 points and 15 rebounds, and the team wins, it doesn't mean everyone is engaged. But when Brewer and Josh Smith do it, everyone roots for those guys.

"It's not 'his team' anymore. It feels like 'our team.' The Rockets now know that it takes 12 guys to win a championship. I don't know if they knew it before, but they do now."

The Rockets know it. Watching Brewer and Smith take over Game 6 with Harden on the bench, Howard said Saturday, was like watching "Angels in the Outfield," the 1950s film (remade in the 1990s) in which celestial beings lift a woebegone team toward victory.

"I think we were all just overwhelmed with just joy," Howard said. "All of us, we put our egos, we put everything aside and just put our faith in each other and we never quit. That's one thing the guys on the court kept saying, 'We won't quit.' "

The Clippers, of course, still could pull out the series. The "Kiss of Death" game, remember, was won by a Rockets team playing on the road, and Los Angeles still has two of the league's best players in guard Chris Paul and forward Blake Griffin, who has averaged 26.8 points and 12.5 rebounds in the series.

'Have to win Game 7'

Closing out a 3-1 deficit with three straight wins is no cakewalk, either. According to the NBA, only one of the last four teams since 1997 to force Game 7 after trailing 3-1 went on to win the deciding game. Among the eventual losers: the 1996-97 Seattle Supersonics, who came from 3-1 down against the Rockets to force Game 7 but lost at Compaq Center.

Similarly, one team will leave Toyota Center on Sunday to continue the 2015 playoffs. One team will be done for the season.

"If you don't win Game 7, no one will remember Game 6," Smith said. "If you win it, all of a sudden this team becomes Clutch City II. But you have to win Game 7."