By BRIAN DULIK

Staff Writer

CLEVELAND — It hasn’t been easy for Ben Wallace to get comfortable playing with the Cavaliers. It’s also been difficult for his teammates to get used to having the four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year on their side.

On Sunday night, however, all of that changed.

“Big Ben” came up huge on both ends of the floor late in the fourth quarter, providing a boost that Cleveland desperately needed to beat the Charlotte Bobcats 98-91.

Wallace made a pair of baskets and grabbed two offensive rebounds in the final 2:20, putting the finishing touches on a four-point, 15-rebound evening that was his best performance with the Cavaliers.

“I’m trying to get a better grip on what to do on the floor,” said Wallace, who also had three steals and one blocked shot in 28 minutes. “Just trying to help out and not get in the way. Hopefully, I’m helping more than I’m hurting the team.”

There was no doubt the 6-foot-9 power forward was a big help for Cleveland (38-29) against Charlotte (24-42), which put up a great fight in losing for the seventh time in seven all-time trips to Quicken Loans Arena.

Wallace, who missed two dunks earlier, scored on a finger-roll layup with 1:55 left and added a resounding putback slam with 1:32 on the clock. Both came after he collected offensive boards in traffic.

His late heroics complemented terrific games by Cavaliers superstar LeBron James (33 points, 7 rebounds, 10 assists) and center Zydrunas Ilgauskas (16 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks), who had been sidelined since March 2 with a lower back injury.

“It’s a treat for me to get ‘Z’ back and for all the rest of our bigs,” James said. “They know they can open it up also with him being out there.

“Ben can just roam and get rebounds, get putbacks and get layups because ‘Z’ spreads the floor so much for him.”

Yet, the Bobcats managed to make it a game down the stretch by riding the hot hands of small forward Jason Richardson (33 points). Charlotte trailed 77-66 with 9:10 remaining, but pulled within 92-91 with 1:08 left on Richardson’s sixth 3-pointer of the contest.

Cleveland point guard Delonte West immediately answered with a pull-up jumper from 18 feet to make it 94-91, which set the stage for another Wallace highlight with 33 ticks remaining.

Richardson drove aggressively through the lane, only to have Wallace meet him at the rim and force him into an off-balance miss. Wallace, who appeared to block the shot but was not officially credited with a rejection, collected the rebound.

After running the shot clock down, James split the center of the paint and kissed the ball off the glass for a deuce. That extended the Cavaliers’ lead to 96-91 with 11 seconds left, which proved to be more than enough when Richardson missed a three and Devin Brown tacked on a pair of free throws before time expired.

“We got this thing down to two, then we miss a key blockout and Ben Wallace is there (dunking) the ball in,” Bobcats coach Sam Vincent lamented. “Guys are still playing hard and well enough to get a win, we’re just coming up a little bit short.”

Sasha Pavlovic scored 11 points and Brown added 10 points and five assists for Cleveland, which has won a season-high seven straight home games.

James also extended his run of 20-point games to 44 in a row and bumped his averages for the month of April to 36.0 points, 7.9 rebounds and 7.0 assists. He even took the time to respond after the contest to Wizards shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson, who called him “overrated” after Washington beat the Cavaliers two days earlier.

“It’s like Jay-Z saying something to Soulja Boy — it don’t make no sense to respond,” said James, casting himself as his good friend Jay-Z and Stevenson as the far less successful rapper Soulja Boy. “Jay-Z is up here (gesturing above his head) and Soulja Boy is down there (motioning toward his ankles). There’s nothing to say.”

Charlotte point guard Raymond Felton had 12 of his 14 points in the second half to go along with nine assists. Emeka Okafor added 10 points and 12 boards, while Nazr Mohammed had nine points and 12 rebounds, but the Bobcats lost the battle of the glass 50-42.

“When we turn the corner, we’ll be able to win these close games,” Vincent said.

Dulik may be reached at brisports@hotmail.com or 330-721-4059.

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