Gibson: Rose in top form

For their first test of the new season, the Chicago Bulls will face the league's biggest star, and a very familiar face, in Cleveland's LeBron James.

In their quest to supplant the Cavaliers as Eastern Conference champs, the Bulls have depth and experience but can't match the star power of James.

Not everyone on the Bulls agrees with that assessment. Taj Gibson made a case Sunday for the guy who was once the NBA's brightest young star.

"I think we've got a superstar. We've got Derrick Rose," Gibson said after practice at the Advocate Center. "You look at the minutes he played in the last game, it showed how explosive he can be when he's healthy. I think we have a good shot (at beating the Cavs)."

Everyone knows Rose's story. He was the youngest MVP in league history in 2011, then missed nearly two full seasons with a pair of knee injuries. Now that his legs are healthy, Rose missed most of the preseason with a fractured left orbital bone but played 10 minutes in Friday's exhibition finale against Dallas while wearing a protective face mask.

"I think (Rose) is in top form," Gibson said. "He's been doing great in practice. I think it's the mask. We've been talking a lot of trash to him and he's been responding well, especially today. We've been getting into him, throwing so many bodies at him. We just couldn't stop him today.

"Those little bit of spare minutes he played (Friday), he was just so fast. It felt like we were really pushing it fast, but he took it to another level."

Gibson also gave an update on Joakim Noah, who is expected to join Gibson in a reserve role. This plan makes sense when it comes to chemistry. The guys who played together for Spain's national team, Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic, will start, while the two guys who grew up in New York City, Noah and Gibson, will come off the bench.

"I guess it works," Gibson said. "I guess me and Jo have an aggressive kind of attitude, how we practice and how we play. It's going to be good for our team, good for the spark, especially when we need energy, especially how we want to play defense."

One benefit to having Noah on the second string, according to Gibson, is it moves the competitiveness in practice to another level.

"Every day in practice, it's comedy because there's so much trash-talking," Gibson said. "It's brutal and it's good to see."

"(Noah) has been our most vocal guy in practices," Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. "He had that group frothing at the mouth today, that second unit. So it was fun. It was a fun practice, and Joakim was a big part of that."

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