• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Wallace leads Bobcats over Wizards

Apr 4, 2007 - 5:42 AM CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Gerald Wallace and the Charlotte Bobcats are exorcising some old demons.

Wallace scored 34 points and added 14 rebounds as the Charlotte Bobcats posted a 122-102 victory over the Washington Wizards in the first game of a home-and-home series.

For Wallace and the Bobcats, the win was just their second over Washington in the last 11 meetings.

Charlotte also got a monkey off its back Friday, beating the Milwaukee Bucks for the first time in franchise history (1-9).

The Bobcats shot a blistering 57 percent (51-of-89) from the floor on Tuesday and Wallace dominated inside as Charlotte scored 64 points in the paint.

"All around, on the offensive end, I think that was as good as a game as we've had," Wallace said. "I was trying to take advantage of the mismatches we had out there. They had Gilbert (Arenas) trying to guard me. They had DeShawn (Stevenson) trying to guard me.

Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month, Walter Herrmann added 21 points and Emeka Okafor scored 17 and grabbed 13 rebounds for the Bobcats, who snapped a five-game skid against the Wizards.

"I'm very happy to receive the award, but I'm going to work very hard to keep improving my game," Herrmann said through an interpreter.

Raymond Felton was the catalyst as he recorded 13 points and 15 assists, and the Bobcats assisted on 36 of their 51 baskets.

"I thought we did a good job of scoring points in the paint," coach Bernie Bickerstaff said. "We were sharing and moving the ball really well."

It was an especially disappointing loss for Washington (39-34), which fell one-half game behind the Miami Heat (40-34) in the Southeast Division with nine games left.

The Wizards will have to play the rest of the regular season without Caron Butler, who suffered a broken hand on Monday's 121-107 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Gilbert Arenas scored 20 of his 33 points in the first half.

Stevenson added 17 for the Wizards, who fell to just 2-9 without Butler, who was averaging 19.1 points and 7.5 rebounds a contest.

The teams play Wednesday in Washington in the final meeting of the season.