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Wallace scored 25 points to lead six players in double figures and Charlotte pulled away in the second half to win its first game since the All-Star break.
Emeka Okafor had 12 points and 12 rebounds, Raymond Felton added 16 points, Vladimir Radmanovic had 15, Boris Diaw 14 and Raja Bell 11 for Charlotte.
Troy Murphy had 18 points and 16 rebounds for the Pacers, who played most of the game without All-Star forward Danny Granger.
Telfair had a career-high 30 points and eight assists, Ryan Gomes added 20 points, and the Minnesota Timberwolves spoiled O'Neal's debut in Miami by hitting a season-high 14 3-pointers and beating the Heat 111-104 on Wednesday night.
Dwyane Wade finished with 37 points and 12 assists for Miami. Udonis Haslem added 17 points for the Heat, and O'Neal -- who sustained a right eye injury in the third quarter and missed 13 minutes before returning late -- had 13 in his first game since being acquired from Toronto last week.
Mario Chalmers scored 12 points for Miami, including a 3-pointer with 2:28 left to give Miami a 99-97 lead.
Chris Paul had 36 points and 10 assists, and the New Orleans Hornets handed the Orlando Magic their worst loss of the season, 117-85 on Wednesday night.
Rasual Butler added 15 points, and David West had 14 for the Hornets, who've won their first two games following the All-Star break.
Rashard Lewis had 17 points, and J.J. Redick 14 for Orlando, which shot poorly from the field and free-throw line. Dwight Howard had 12 points and was a non-factor for most of the last three quarters, when he scored only two points.
Kirk Hinrich scored a season-high 31 points, including three straight baskets during a critical stretch in the fourth quarter to help the suddenly short-handed Chicago Bulls beat the Milwaukee Bucks 113-104 on Wednesday night.
Luol Deng added 21 for the Bulls, playing with a short bench after trading four players to Sacramento earlier in the day.
Richard Jefferson tied a season high with 32 points for the Bucks, who brought a three-game winning streak into the game despite playing without injured starters Michael Redd, Andrew Bogut and Luke Ridnour. Charlie Villanueva had 17 points and 12 rebounds.
Kidd opened the game with three early 3-pointers and scored 23 points, one shy of his season high. He also had 10 assists and a quick-handed steal against Devin Harris -- the youngster he was dealt for -- during the game-breaking third quarter
The Mavericks improved to 7-2 since Kidd was put in charge of the offense. This one was especially impressive as four starters cracked 20 points, and all five were in double figures. Josh Howard had 24 points and 10 rebounds, Dirk Nowitzki had 23 points and nine rebounds, and Erick Dampier scored 10.
Vince Carter started 6-of-8, but missed his last 10 shots, failing to score in the second half. He finished with 15 points. Brook Lopez had 16 points and Jarvis Hayes scored 15 on 6-of-6 shooting. Keyon Dooling scored 14.
No Manu
The Spurs will be without Manu Ginobili Thursday. He has a sore right ankle and did not travel with the team. Ginobili's fragile health is the main reason the Spurs have been poking around trade scenarios involving New Jersey's Vince Carter.
On the Pistons' front: Michael Curry said the zone defense would remain a part of the Pistons' defensive package. Initially, he refused to implement the zone, feeling that if the man-to-man defense was played well enough, there would be no need to resort to a zone. Well, clearly, with Allen Iverson on the floor, the Pistons man defense isn't good enough. They have gotten killed almost nightly by dribble penetration. Resorting to zone was long overdue."There have been a few other games we couldn't gone to that," Curry admitted. "I take responsibility for that."
Curry made a good point about Antonio McDyess. He is challenging the Pistons to worry less about making mistakes and missing shots and just get back to fighting and competing. His point being, if at the end of the game you can say you played harder than your opponent, you can live with the results. "Just be aggressive and things tend to work out," Curry said. "Dyess had 24 points (against the Bucks) and we ran one play for him. We don't run plays for him and he doesn't care who he's on the court with. He just plays. Everybody needs to do the same thing." That's a pretty telling quote right there. Curry is tired of hearing about chemistry. He's tired of guys complain about who they are on the court with. In a very subtle way, Curry is telling these guys to shut up, man up and play. At least that's how I read it.
Michael Curry Video Blog (2/18)
Coach Curry discusses the Pistons' upcoming road trip, what he likes to do during his free time on the road and the possibility of using more zone defense in the future.
Joe Dumars on Allen Iverson
Pistons president Joe Dumars discusses All-Star guard Allen Iverson.
MetroPCS Pistons Weekly Plays of the Week
Plays of the week for February 15, 2009.
Joe Dumars on Rasheed Wallace
Pistons president Joe Dumars discusses forward Rasheed Wallace.
Joe Dumars on Rodney Stuckey
Pistons president Joe Dumars shares his thoughts on second-year guard Rodney Stuckey.
Stavon Williams scored 13 points and Tai Wesley added 11 to lead Utah State to a 78-57 win over Cal State Bakersfield on Wednesday night.
Gary Wilkinson pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds for the Aggies (25-2) in the non-conference game.
Trent Blakely scored 14 points, including 3-of-6 3-pointers, for the Roadrunners (6-20). Teammate Alex Johnson added 13 points.
Brandon Roy had 24 points, including two key layups in the final minutes, and the Portland Trail Blazers held off the Memphis Grizzlies 94-90 on Wednesday night.
After trailing by 16 points, the Grizzlies went ahead 86-84 with less than 5 minutes to go. But Roy's layup followed by Travis Outlaw's 3-pointer with 2:31 left put the Blazers up 90-86.
Marc Gasol made a pair of free throws for Memphis before Roy had another layup to make it 92-88. Rookie O.J. Mayo's finger-roll narrowed it to 92-90 with 5.4 seconds left. Roy, coming off his second All-Star game appearance, made a pair of free throws for the final margin.
Former Sacramento guard Mike Bibby scored 29 points to help the Atlanta Hawks beat the short-handed Kings 105-100 on Wednesday night.
Kevin Martin had 32 points and 11 rebounds for Sacramento.
Johnson scored 20 points and had six assists for the Hawks. Al Horford had 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Josh Smith added 12 points.
Amare Stoudemire had 42 points and 11 rebounds, shooting 15-for-20 from the field and leading the Phoenix Suns to a 142-119 rout of the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.
Steve Nash had 21 points and 12 assists for the rejuvenated Suns, who played their second game under interim head coach Alvin Gentry and are back to their old ways of up-tempo basketball following Monday's firing of Terry Porter. Shaquille O'Neal had 16 points and six rebounds, helping complete a four-game sweep of the season series. Grant Hill played 21 scoreless minutes while shooting 0-for-5.
The Clippers, who have lost 23 of 28, were swept in a season series of four or more games by the Suns for the ninth time. Al Thornton led Los Angeles with 33 points, rookie Eric Gordon scored 23 and Fred Jones added 20 off the bench. Marcus Camby missed his third straight game because of infection in his right ear, which occurred on the flight back from Charlotte at the end of a seven-game road trip.
Kobe Bryant scored 30 points, Pau Gasol added 24 points and 13 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers roared from behind in the final 5 minutes for their 13th victory in 15 games, 129-121 over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night.
Lamar Odom scored 22 points for the Lakers, who have improved the NBA's best record to 44-10 with back-to-back wins following the All-Star break. Los Angeles trailed late into the fourth quarter, but made a 17-3 run beginning with back-to-back 3-pointers by Trevor Ariza, who finished with 17 points.
Stephen Jackson and Corey Maggette scored 24 points apiece for the Warriors, who lost for just the second time in six games.
Michael Curry: Rodney Stuckey must lift Pistons
The Detroit Pistons are in a rut, with every player and coach contributing to the mess. While it will take the efforts of many to turn around the season, if the Pistons are to have a resurgence down the stretch, it will have to be led by Rodney Stuckey. "Rodney's the key to our team, period," Pistons coach Michael Curry said. While Curry is quick to clarify that Stuckey is not the one to blame for the team's mediocre record (27-25), he said better play from the second-year guard would get the Pistons on track. "We've had other guys on the court that have played well, and it doesn't affect everybody else," Curry said. "But when he plays well, everybody gets a chance to play well."
Curry said Stuckey's impact on the Pistons' chances of winning is not all that different than the effect the Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant have on their teams. "I'm not putting him in that category," Curry said. "But for us, his numbers show it. When he plays well, we're a pretty good team." When Stuckey does not play well, the Pistons have outcomes such as Tuesday's 92-86 home loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, which extended Detroit's losing streak to four. Stuckey is averaging 13.4 points this season, but finished Tuesday's game with twice as many personal fouls (six) as points scored. While he was not the only Detroit guard to struggle defensively, he made his share of mistakes that contributed to Milwaukee's backcourt combining for 24 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists. "This is his first year playing as many minutes," Pistons guard Richard Hamilton said. "He's going to have ups and downs. The one thing we tell him is to stay confident. It happens to the best of us. It's kind of like this is his rookie year, being out there as many as minutes."
And like most young players seeing major minutes for the first time, Stuckey has a tendency to defer a lot to his teammates. Curry said that is part of Stuckey's problem. "He kind of ignites everybody else," Curry said. "I talked to him about some things we can do to keep him aggressive. He spends a lot of time trying to make sure everybody else is OK on the court, but his natural instinct is to be aggressive. We just want him to be himself."
Effortless play
Tuesday's slow start was described several ways, but the common belief among the Pistons is the players did not bring forth the kind of effort to have a shot at competing.
"I take a lot of things as a coach -- what we do out on the court and things like that -- but being ready to play, that's on a player," Curry said. "Everybody knows that. We all know you gotta be ready. You bring what you bring to the table. "As a coach, it's on me and my staff to put you in place to be successful and for the team to be successful. But you can't go in night in and night out not knowing who is going to be ready to play or at what level they're going to be able to play at."
One player Curry never worries about showing up is Antonio McDyess, who had 24 points and 14 rebounds against the Bucks. "We ran one play for him," Curry said. "He had (14) rebounds. We don't run plays for Dice. It doesn't matter who is on the court with Dice. He goes out and just plays. Everybody has to do the same thing."
The San Antonio Spurs visit the Detroit Pistons (5 p.m. TNT)