NBA

Impressed Nets glad Wallace on their side

It has been less than a month since the Nets acquired Gerald Wallace in a trade-deadline deal with the Trail Blazers.

Wallace has quickly earned the praise of Nets coach Avery Johnson and virtually every player on the roster as one of the team’s most important players, both on the court and inside the locker room.

“He’s a veteran,” Gerald Green said after Sunday’s 122-117 overtime win over the Cavaliers. “A lot of the guys are young … Gerald’s been in the trenches. We all will listen to a guy like that who’s been through it all.

“It’s always good to have a player like that on your team, because you’ll be willing to listen.”

Acquiring Wallace could prove to have a high price, as the Nets will give up their first-round pick in June’s draft if it isn’t among the top three spots. But Wallace could prove to be worth it, after averaging 14.8 points and 6.7 rebounds in 13 games with the Nets and helping the team to six wins in its last nine.

“He comes in [and] he plays hard,” Deron Williams said. “He fits into a lot of systems, any system, really, with the way he plays. He does a lot of things on both ends of the floor, and he’s been a great leader in the locker room, as well.”

That’s what makes the possibility of Wallace missing significant time after straining his left hamstring in the second quarter Sunday such an issue for the Nets, who arguably are playing their best basketball of the season going into a home-and-home tonight against the 76ers, who are tied with the Knicks for seventh in the Eastern Conference, at Prudential Center.

* Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who watched Sunday’s game from a luxury box above midcourt, will tour the Barclays Center construction site today. Prokhorov is also expected to attend the league’s Board of Governors meetings later this week, in which the Nets’ impending move to Brooklyn, along with their name change to the Brooklyn Nets, are expected to be formally approved. …

The Nets signed Armon Johnson to a 10-day contract yesterday. The 6-foot-3 guard started the year with Portland before getting sent to the D-League’s Idaho Stampede.

Johnson replaced forward Dennis Horner on the roster. Horner was sent back to the Nets’ D-League affiliate, the Springfield Armor, after his 10-day contract expired at midnight Sunday.

tbontemps@nypost.com