Candace Buckner

Since their days in college, Roy Hibbert and Joakim Noah have engaged in their 1-on-1 battles. Sometimes, even the feud has spilled off the court. As Gargamel is to Papa Smurf, so is Noah to Hibbert. The two are mortal enemies.

Though Hibbert may not personally like Noah, he can still recognize and respect the work Noah performed as the foreman of the Chicago Bulls.

While superstar Derrick Rose missed most of the past two seasons, it was Noah providing the Scotch tape over the Bulls who won 45-plus games each year and made the postseason. Last year, Noah was seventh on the team in scoring, but did a little of everything for Chicago on his way to winning the Defensive Player of the Year award. Tonight, the Bulls will once again be without Rose when the Pacers visit the United Center.

Once the Pacers' own shining light, Paul George, flickered out after breaking his leg, Hibbert found inspiration to step up his game by observing his nemesis.

"When (George) got hurt, I just knew that the stuff I was working on would come into effect even more," Hibbert said. "My mindset was never like, 'He's out. I've got to take 20 shots a game.' I just said I've got to be even more efficient. Paul's not going to be there to grab those rebounds, so I just got to make sure I do my part and put extra effort out there. I always looked at how - maybe I didn't like the guy as much but I saw how Joakim Noah kept things going for a year and a half while D Rose was out. I really respect that."

In many ways, Hibbert has stepped to fill the void left by George - he's second on the team in scoring (14.2 points per game) and tops in rebounding (8.2) while still maintaining his status as one of the best rim protectors in the league with (opponents have only made 36.6 percent of shots at the rim against Hibbert's defense). Still, Hibbert wants to diversify his game and remain consistent, just as Noah has demonstrated. Last season, Noah played 80 games and averaged 35.3 minutes and finished tied for second in the league with the most triple-doubles (four).

"I would love to have a game where I had 10 assists where I'm in the post and I'm able to facilitate different things and Joakim was doing that, he would get a triple-double off of points, rebounds and assists. He may score 10 points but he'd had 13 rebounds, 8 or 9 assists and three blocks," Hibbert said.

"I'm not saying, there may be times where I have to take 15-20 shots but I don't anticipate that every night but maybe a game where I'm called upon to exploit the matchup that I do have to help the team win," Hibbert continued. "But it was more just, I get the ball in the post, I got to be efficient, I got to go strong. If I don't score, I got to get fouled or find somebody open for an open shot."