Boxscore | Play-By-Play | Gallery | Video

Gerald Wallace brought the energy early and often on Saturday night as the Bobcats extended their home winning streak to three games with a 100-82 victory over the Washington Wizards in front of 17,791 fans at Charlotte Bobcats Arena.

Wallace set the tone on the game's very first play, stealing a pass from Gilbert Arenas and driving the length of the court for a thunderous dunk. It was the first two of a game-high 26 points, including 18 in the first half. Wallace finished his best all-around game of the season with 26 points, a career-high tying 14 rebounds, a season-high five blocked shots and three steals.

Wallace had plenty of help as four of the five starters scored in double figures and Melvin Ely tied his season-high with 14 points off the bench. Kareem Rush registered 23 points, Emeka Okafor recorded his 10th double-double of the year with 10 points and a season-high 17 rebounds and Brevin Knight added a game-high nine assists.

The Bobcats trailed only once, 7-6 in the opening minutes, before grabbing the lead for good behind Wallace and Rush and opening a 28-20 lead after one period. Charlotte extended that advantage to 13 on two occasions in the second quarter before Arenas scored seven points in a 15-6 run that cut the margin to 45-41 at the half.

The Wizards pulled to within 60-58 on a Chucky Atkins three-pointer with 4:23 remaining in the third when the Bobcats exploded with a 9-0 run to push the lead back to double digits. The Bobcats ability to play team basketball showed throughout the stretch. Keith Bogans opened the run with a layup off a nice pass from Ely, Ely then connected on a short hook shot after an Okafor steal, Wallace hit one of two free throws and then scored on a layup after a Bogans steal and Primoz Brezec completed the run with a tip-in of a Bogans miss. The Bobcats took a 69-61 lead into the fourth.

Washington connected on the opening basket of the final period to cut the margin to six, but Rush drilled a three-pointer for the first of his 13 fourth-quarter points and the Bobcats never looked back. Charlotte pushed the advantage to as many as 21 in the closing minutes before wrapping up its fifth victory of the season.

The Bobcats open a four-game road trip at Sacramento on Tuesday.

NOTES: The Bobcats improved to 4-0 at home this season against Eastern Conference opponents...Emeka Okafor has recorded six consecutive double-doubles and 10 overall this year...Raymond Felton has hit a three-pointer in seven consecutive games...Charlotte is 5-1 when scoring 100 or more points this season...The Bobcats outscored the Wizards 25-10 in fastbreak points and have outscored their opponents 232-116 this season...Charlotte had 10 steals in the game and leads the NBA with 11.7 per outing...The Bobcats forced 21 turnovers leading to 25 points -- they lead the NBA with 20.3 forced turnovers per contest...Kareem Rush is averaging 21.7 points over the last six games...Gerald Wallace is averaging 22.3 points in the three games since returning from a wrist injury...Charlotte averages 100.3 points at home as compared to 93.4 on the road...Tonight's game marked the fourth time this season that two players scored 20 or more points in the same game -- in all four instances, Charlotte has won the game...With tonight's win, the Bobcats have beaten Boston, Indiana, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, against which they were a collective 1-17 last season.

INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM
Head Coach & General Manager Bernie Bickerstaff
(On the game) I thought we got out of the gate tonight. Normally when we get out of the gate, we play pretty consistently. Emeka (Okafor) had his 10 rebounds at halftime, so he was very active. Gerald (Wallace) obviously was active.

(On Gerald Wallace) Some of the plays that the guy makes are just phenomenal. I don’t know what you do with his body after the game. The blocks, the one where he just went up and grabbed it and caught it and it was legal, he gives you the energy. He started the game off with a steal. I think that just kind of energized him. Again what we talked about was there was that one stretch that looked like it might have been a run and then Kareem (Rush), who hadn’t been shooting well, dropped two big ones and took some pressure off of Mel (Melvin Ely) because they had to space the defense out.

(On the Bobcats) That’s a pretty good basketball team in that room in there. They come back from heartbreak pretty good and that’s been the history. I think the support group helps them too. You have people in the seats, that’s lifting. The way these guys have played, they leave it all out on the court.

(On the upcoming road trip) We’re off to the West Coast. We’ve played well on the road, starting off in Chicago, Philly and Boston. Like I said, the Boston crowds are loud, so we’ve played good on the road. I think it’s even more important not to come from a deficit on the road. You have to put pressure on that home team and you have to try to take crowds out of it. Going into Sacramento, that’s always a sellout. They’re loud, so you have to step up and try to take the crowd out of it.

Bobcats Forward Gerald Wallace
(On the last three games) A couple of stops here and there in Boston and we’d be sitting good right now with a three-game win streak. That’s what I was telling Brevin (Knight) last night. We go up to Boston, to a team that was struggling and a team that we’re supposed to beat, then we come home and play Washington, a team that’s also struggling, a must win for us. 2-1 in the last three games before we go to the West Coast is pretty good, especially knowing that we could have been 3-0.

(On whether the first steal of the game set the tone) I think so. They were coming off a double-overtime game and we wanted to get in and push them and do as much as we can to get them out of the game they like to play.

(On playing an up-tempo game early) Everybody wants to do that at home. That’s one of our strengths. Give the ball to Brevin (Knight) and he finds open guys. We wanted to get the ball to him as quickly as possible and push it and run. We know that Washington is a jump-shooting team so there will be long rebounds and that will give us opportunities to get and run and get to the basket.

Bobcats Guard Kareem Rush
(On Gerald Wallace) On the first play of the game, he got a steal and then we ran right through them. He’s a great player. He’s playing tremendous this year. We missed him those couple of games he was out. You see what type of different team we have when he’s in the lineup. He’s blocking shots, rebounding and doing everything we need him to do. He’s scoring our points this year too, which is a surprise and we hope he continues to do what he’s doing.