By AARON BEARD
AP Sports Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. — With Dwyane Wade out, Chris Bosh turned in the aggressive performance Miami coach Erik Spoelstra wanted to see.
Bosh scored 21 points to help the Heat beat the Charlotte Bobcats 98-92 in a preseason game Tuesday night.
LeBron James added 10 points and eight assists for the Heat (4-2), who gave Wade the night off. Ray Allen added 15 points off the bench for Miami, which shot 51.5 percent and hit 11 3-pointers.
Bosh went 8 for 12 from the field with seven rebounds, five assists and two blocks in 25 minutes.
“It doesn’t matter what position you’re playing. It’s playing big, playing athletic and playing long at your position, and he did that tonight,” Spoelstra said. “He was a presence. He was aggressive to the rim. He was really our only threat consistently in the paint and at the rim, and he’ll have to continue to provide that for us.”
Bosh was coming off a six-point performance in Saturday’s victory over San Antonio.
“It was just a good day,” Bosh said. “I feel any time I’m aggressive, I can just be effective in some kind of way.”
Ramon Sessions and Kemba Walker each scored 24 points for the Bobcats (1-5), who shot just 36.8 percent. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, the No. 2 overall draft pick, had four points on 2-for-8 shooting.
It was the Bobcats’ first game in PNC Arena, about 2½ hours northeast of Charlotte and home to North Carolina State of the Atlantic Coast Conference as well as the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes. The Bobcats also played New Orleans in Charleston, S.C., on Oct. 11 in an effort to expand their fan reach within the Carolinas.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski — who has coached James, Wade and Bosh in the Olympics — dropped by the Heat locker room to visit his former U.S. players afterward.
Miami led by 18 late in the third quarter before the Bobcats rallied to within 92-90 on Walker’s layup with about 4 minutes left. But Charlotte couldn’t tie the game or push ahead against the Miami reserves, including one possession when big man Bismack Biyombo missed a shot in the lane for the tie that led to a fast-break layup for Miami at the other end.
The Bobcats played without Ben Gordon due to a right ankle strain and Byron Mullens because of a right knee bruise.
“I thought there was team chemistry,” Bobcats coach Mike Dunlap said. “They felt like a team, they played like a team. It was a very good, solid game on both sides.”
BULLS 94, THUNDER 89
CHICAGO — Carlos Boozer had 24 points, 12 rebounds and five assists to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 94-89 preseason victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Thunder played without three-time NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, who were rested by coach Scott Brooks.
Serge Ibaka picked up the slack for the Thunder with 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting. James Harden, who won the NBA’s Sixth Man Award last season, got a rare start and scored 13 points but was just 2 of 17 from the floor. Ibaka did not play in the fourth quarter.
Luol Deng scored 21 points and Joakim Noah finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Bulls, who led by as many as 14 early in the third quarter.
Harden made two free throws and then found rookie Perry Jones for a dunk to cut the Chicago lead to 87-84 with 44.1 seconds left, but Boozer answered with a fadeaway jumper to put the Bulls up 89-84 with 34.4 seconds to go.
Richard Hamilton secured the game for Chicago with four free throws in the final 13 seconds. He finished with 13 points.
Jones scored 14 points in 20 minutes.
Boozer scored 13 points and Deng added 10 in the first half to help the Bulls take a 51-40 lead at the break.
