CLEVELAND – LeBron James scored 18 points, 13 after halftime, and the Cleveland Cavaliers bounced back from a tough road loss by beating the Charlotte Bobcats 101-81 on Friday night.

One night after blowing a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter and letting Miami’s Dwyane Wade drop 24 points on them in the final period, the Cavaliers built a double-digit lead by halftime and rolled.

James, slowed by a sprained right big toe that might bother him all season, added 10 rebounds in 35 minutes. Drew Gooden had 16 points, Larry Hughes 13 and Anderson Varejao 12 while matching a season high with 13 rebounds for Cleveland.

Gerald Wallace, coming off a franchise-record 42-point game on Wednesday vs. New York, led Charlotte with 16 points and rookie Adam Morrison had 14. The banged-up Bobcats were undermanned, playing without guard Brevin Knight (abdominal tear), center Primoz Brezec (back spasms) and forward Sean May (sore knee).

But as has been the case all season, the Cavaliers seemed uninspired early on while playing against a sub-.500 team and didn’t seize control of the game until midway through the second period, when they pushed their lead to 17.