HOUSTON • The Denver Nuggets felt a bad call cost them a win against the Houston Rockets.

Yao Ming scored 31 points, Rafer Alston added 18 points and 11 assists and the Rockets beat the Nuggets 115-113 on Monday.

Denver’s Kenyon Martin missed two foul shots with 2.6 seconds left, and Yao got the rebound to clinch the win. But the Nuggets felt they had the go-ahead basket wrongly taken away on their previous possession.

Yao missed with 18 seconds left, Martin rebounded and Denver coach George Karl called timeout. Linas Kleiza drove into the lane and passed to Nene for a dunk. But the basket didn’t count because referee Bennett Salvatore called a charge on Kleiza for running into Chuck Hayes.

“I thought it was definitely a flop,” Kleiza said. “I definitely didn’t feel like I hit him. But, oh well. It’s done. We’ve got to move on.”

Aaron Brooks hit 1-of-2 from the line with 6.5 seconds to go and Karl called one more timeout.

Chauncey Billups fed Martin cutting down the lane, and he was fouled. Martin came into the game making 58.3 percent of his free throws.

The Nuggets were too steamed about Salvatore’s call on Kleiza to blame Martin for the loss.

“L.K. made a great play,” Karl said. “It was a great play that won the game. We’re just going to go home without a win.”

J.R. Smith scored 24, Nene had 23 and Martin 22 for the Nuggets, who lost for just the third time in 12 games.

“We had great effort,” Karl said. “My big guys battled Yao and got beat up a lot. He’s a tough cat, gets away with a lot of holding, grabbing and dislodging. There are losses that are good losses. Tonight was a good loss.”

Former Nugget Von Wafer had 18 points and Luis Scola finished with 16 for the Rockets, who have won five of six games. Yao went 13-for-19 from the field – 5-for-8 in the fourth quarter.

“He was terrific,” Houston coach Rick Adelman said.

Yao, who went 12-for-12 from the field in a win over Miami on Saturday, missed his first two shots. Alston sank his first five shots, including three 3-pointers, to carry the Rockets early.

Yao spun for a dunk 90 seconds into the third quarter, then drew his fourth foul going for an offensive rebound. The Nuggets hit five of their first eight after the break to build an 80-73 lead.

Denver finally started missing and the Rockets finished the third quarter with a 17-7 spurt to take a 90-87 lead to the fourth. The Nuggets scored 68 points in the first half, but mustered only 19 in the third quarter.

“Our defense in the second half was key,” Yao said. “In the first half, they shot way too many layups.”

Smith started the final quarter with a pair of 3-pointers to put the Nuggets back in front. He hit four 3s and went 6-for-10 from the field in the fourth quarter.

Yao’s hook shot with 1:41 left gave the Rockets a 114-110 lead. Smith hit his fifth 3-pointer with 1:05 left to cut Houston’s lead to one.

TODAY

Sacramento at Denver, 7 p.m. ALT, 1580 AM

A star of a recent blockbuster stars lives in the Pikes Peak region. Brodie, the golden labrador retriever, was one of the dogs to play Marley in the recent Marley and Me movie. Photo by (The Gazette/Jerilee Bennett)