HOUSTON — Tracy McGrady did it all, Yao Ming dominated inside and Ron Artest provided support off the bench. Finally, the Houston Rockets showed a glimpse of how good they can be.

McGrady notched his fourth career triple-double and first this season, Yao scored 32 points and the Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets, 108-96, last night.

McGrady, an 11-year veteran guard, had 20 points and reached season highs in rebounds (14) and assists (10) for his first triple-double since last December. Artest scored 20 points and backup point guard Aaron Brooks added 18 for the Rockets, who've won five of their last seven games.

But this was the kind of performance expected from the Rockets since they acquired Artest in August. Houston matched a season high with 26 assists, held the Nuggets to 35 points in the second half and shot a season-high 55 percent (42-of-76) from the field.

"It was, overall, a great effort on our part," said McGrady, who also had three blocked shots and a steal. "We can be a dangerous team, when we've got the defense as well, clicking like that, we can be a pretty good team."

Carmelo Anthony scored 22 and J.R. Smith had 17 for the Nuggets, who saw a four-game winning streak snapped.

ELSEWHERE

Pistons' Iverson fined: Detroit guard Allen Iverson was fined $25,000 by the NBA yesterday for making inappropriate comments toward a fan in a win at Charlotte. Iverson made the remarks to the fan with 6.2 seconds remaining in the third quarter during the Pistons' 90-86 victory over the Bobcats on Saturday.

Bobcats' Wallace on leave: Charlotte forward Gerald Wallace has left the team to attend funeral services for his father, but is expected to return for Friday's game at Memphis. Wallace missed three games last week after his grandmother died. Just before returning to the team, he found out his father had passed away.