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Over the course of an 82-game season, the Bobcats are going to have games like this.

Charlotte was overmatched from the start against Detroit on Saturday at Charlotte Bobcats Arena, falling 103-78, in front of a sellout crowd in attendance for Holiday Hoopla.

Primoz Brezec led Charlotte with 17 points, while Emeka Okafor finished with his third-straight double-double and 15th overall with 14 points and 13 rebounds, but it wasn’t nearly enough to keep the 2004-05 Eastern Conference Champions at bay.

Detroit jumped on the Bobcats early in the first quarter, quickly turning a 4-4 tie into a 14-4 lead on the strength of back-to-back three-point plays from Ben Wallace and Chauncey Billups. The Pistons never looked back from there, holding Charlotte to a franchise-tying-low 12 points on 6-21 shooting (.286) in the first quarter as they built a 21-12 lead at quarter’s end.

“The effort early in that basketball game, particularly in that first quarter, was probably the worst I’ve ever seen from a Bobcats team,” Bobcats General Manager and Head Coach Bernie Bickerstaff said. “It appeared that we were in awe.”

For a brief moment, it appeared the Bobcats might get back into the game early in the second quarter. Bernard Robinson’s layup with 9:31 left in the half cut the Piston’s lead to six points, 23-17, but it would be the last time Charlotte was able to slice the lead to single digits.

On Detroit’s next trip down the court, Billups converted a technical foul shot after Charlotte was whistled for a defensive three-second violation and followed up with a three-pointer on the same possession to push the lead back to 10 points. Seven minutes later, Detroit had opened up a 17-point lead, 39-22, and Bickerstaff was ejected after being whistled for two technical fouls.

“Most teams will allow you to get back into the basketball game, but there was no way,” Bickerstaff said. “That team remained focused and continued to play basketball. They put their foot on us, and it was that simple.”

Assistant Coach John-Blair Bickerstaff took over with the unenviable task of trying to rally Charlotte from a 23-point halftime deficit, as the Bobcats finished with their lowest point total for a half in franchise history, trailing 49-26.

The Bobcats came out firing in the third quarter, scoring 30 points, but were only able to cut the Pistons lead to 75-56. That’s because for every Charlotte run, Detroit seemed to have an answer, as both teams shot 54.5 percent from the floor in the stanza on identical 12-22 shooting.

From that point, it was just a matter of playing out the string, as the Pistons reserves helped Detroit outscore Charlotte, 28-22, in the final 12 minutes of play led by nine points from Maurice Evans.

Billups led six Pistons in double-digits with 21 points, followed by Richard Hamilton (15), Tayshaun Prince (14), Ben Wallace (13), Evans (11) and Rasheed Wallace (10).

The Bobcats will take on Sacramento at 7:30 p.m. on Monday at Charlotte Bobcats Arena.

NOTES: Coming into tonight, Detroit was the best in the league at holding onto the ball, committing just 11.9 turnovers. The Bobcats forced 16 turnovers tonight, which they turned into 18 points… Primoz Brezec scored 17 points on 7-11 shooting. Brezec came into tonight’s game ranked 8th in the NBA in field goal percentage with .528. The 17 points was Brezec’s highest scoring output since he netted 21 points on November 30 at Seattle… Brevin Knight handed out eight assists. He came into the game tied for 3rd in the NBA in assists with 8.6… Knight left Saturday’s contest 49 seconds into the fourth quarter with a right forearm contusion… Emeka Okafor recorded his third consecutive double-double and 15th on the season with 14 points and 13 rebounds. He also had six offensive rebounds and came into this game ranked 3rd in the NBA in offensive rebounds with 3.6… Gerald Wallace was held scoreless in 11:44 of play on 0-0 shooting from the floor. It was the first time Wallace went scoreless since Feb. 9, 2005 at Indiana. It was the first game in which he has played as a Bobcats player that he didn’t attempt a shot.

INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM
Bobcats Head Coach and General Manager Bernie Bickerstaff
(On the game) As I watched it as we came out in the second half, there was more energy and we played well, but by that time Detroit answered everything. We’d go down and score and they would come back and score. (Maurice) Evans would make a basket, (Chauncey) Billups would make a basket. That basketball team (Detroit) is really too good for you to have that type of deficit. It’s a veteran team that knows how when they get you down to step on you and not allow you to rise. My disappointment is I just didn’t like the way we came out to compete. Other than that I don’t suppose there’s a 25-point play anywhere that we could come up with.

(On Detroit) They’re good. I’m not angry because Detroit beat us. We could have played perfect and the results would have been the same. I’m disappointed that we didn’t come out and compete against them. I’m not worried about the shots that we missed, we just didn’t compete. They’re awfully good. When you can go to the bench and bring in a (Antonio) McDyess. Joe Dumars has done a great job in the fit of that basketball team. They’re really, really good. They’re veterans, they play well together. I don’t really see any weaknesses in their basketball team.

(On the effort level) We had some points last year that I said the same thing. I don’t think it’s anything habitual. I’m just telling you tonight that I’m disappointed that we didn’t. Sometimes, I’ve been around long enough, what veteran teams do to young teams, they take you hard. I remember being involved with good team and when the young teams would come you would really have to grab them by the throat and step on them. That was the message they wanted to send to us tonight. My problem was the first quarter. We couldn’t get a second wind.

Center Primoz Brezec
(On losing to the Pistons) The fans came out to watch us -- they sold out the place, and we didn’t put up a fight. It’s just embarrassing. They’re a good team, and we didn’t do the things the coaches talked about offensively from the start. It’s tough when you don’t put up a fight, and get beat like that.

(On the Bobcats defense) We didn’t do the stuff the coaches told us to do in shootaround today. Just defensively, we were flat and had no energy. We have practice tomorrow, and we just have to get better defensively.

(On their level of energy) We had a great practice yesterday, we concentrated on all of their offensive sets today in shootaround. We just didn’t execute the game plan that the coaches gave to us. That’s what going to happen in this league. You’re going to get killed.

Guard Brevin Knight
(On playing with passion) If we don’t come out and play at a certain level, night in and night out, we don’t have a chance of winning. We came out tonight, and they were sharp. If you come out against the best teams in the league, and think you can just lolly-gag or walk your way through it, you’re going to get murdered. That’s what happened to us tonight. We didn’t play with enough passion. We didn’t play with enough urgency in order to even stay close to them.