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McGraw: Perfect on road, Bulls lose again at home

The Bulls will head out of town with their best record at the start of the circus trip since 1996-97.

But how good are they really?

The early schedule hasn't been all that strenuous, and the Bulls dropped a couple of home games that should have been automatic.

Saturday brought their worst effort of the season. Indiana came in severely short-handed and coming off a 21-point home loss to Denver the previous night. But the Pacers led most of the way and shut down the Bulls 99-90 at the United Center.

The Bulls are 7-3 overall, but the breakdown is a little strange. They are 5-0 on the road and 2-3 at home.

"We get lackadaisical at home at times," Taj Gibson said. "You feel the crowd is always going to get you into the game, the crowd is going to help you. But it's not that easy.

"The crowd needs reason to cheer. We could have gave them more reason to cheer."

Nothing worked well for the Bulls on this night. They didn't shoot well inside or out and were outrebounded 46-34.

"We were beaten in every aspect of the game from start to finish," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "We've got to figure it out. Coming in ready to play every night is critical."

There were a couple of milestones achieved. Pau Gasol collected his 3,000th career assist in the first quarter. The game ball sat on the chair in front of his locker after the contest. Overall, though, Gasol hit just 4 of 15 shots for 12 points and 6 rebounds.

Jimmy Butler, meanwhile, provided the Bulls' only consistent offense. He scored a career-high 32 points, getting to the foul line 14 times.

"I could care less how many points I score, actually," Butler said. "Yeah, I scored the ball, but we didn't win. I think that's all that matters is winning. Points doesn't win you championships or games."

For three quarters, it seemed as though the Bulls didn't gather a serious sense of urgency because they were always within striking distance. Heading into the fourth quarter, the deficit was a meager 4 points. The Pacers (4-7) kept pushing, though, and unleashed an 11-0 run to boost their lead to 88-71 with 6:38 left.

Once they were in serious trouble. the Bulls tried to make a comeback, but this game was too far gone. With just less than a minute left, Tony Snell missed a 3-point shot that could have brought the home team within 5, and that was that.

Luis Scola, A.J. Price and Solomon Hill each scored 21 points for Indiana. The Pacers were missing Paul George, David West, George Hill, C.J. Watson and C.J. Miles because of injury.

The Bulls played without Derrick Rose, who has a left-hamstring strain, but that's nothing new. Rose has missed five of 10 games so far this season.

"I think every team that wants to be at the top of the league, you've got to protect your home court, do your job at home and then go on the road and try to get as many as you can," Gasol said. "We're kind of doing it the opposite way. We've just got to be ready to play these games at home, teams that we're supposed to beat."

The Bulls will leave Sunday for the seven-game circus road trip, which begins Monday against the Los Angeles Clippers. Next up are visits to Sacramento, Portland, Utah, Denver, then an East Coast leg in Boston and Brooklyn. The Bulls aren't stopping at home, so they'll be gone for 15 days.

"I like going on the road right now," Thibodeau said. "I think the challenge for us is to be ready and just to look at the Clippers, that's it. Don't get locked up into getting distracted. … When we're right, I like us against anybody."

• Get the latest Bulls news via Twitter by following @McGrawDHBulls.

Again, no timetable on Rose's return

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