HC Vogel on Hibbert: 'He looks to me to be worn down'

There are reasons to suspect that Roy Hibbert was benched in the second half of Sunday's embarrassing loss to the Atlanta Hawks for disciplinary reasons.

Some of that case is outlined in the post below, and head coach Frank Vogel is very clearly fed up with the public in-fighting his team is partaking in, some of which Hibbert is at least partially responsible for.

However, following the game, Vogel indicated that the benching was for the purposes of rest.

I considered resting Roy before tonight's game because he looks worn down, he's a 7-2 player that's played every game this year, which is very rare. He looks to me to be worn down. He's giving good effort, but he looks to me to be worn down.

Hibbert refused comment: "I got nothing to say," he offered.

The 7-foot-2 Georgetown product has appeared in all 78 of Indiana's games this season, already reaching a career high with 2,331 minutes played. In 2012-13, he appeared in 79 of 82 games plus an additional 19 playoff games, and he's missed just six regular season games in total over the past five years. It's certainly possible he's worn down.

He's averaging 11.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocks, shooting 44.9 percent from the floor. None of those numbers are down an egregious amount, but they all represent a decline from last season despite Hibbert playing slightly more minutes.

Still, the Pacers defense allows 1.6 fewer points per 100 possessions with Hibbert on the floor while scoring an additional 6.1; his impact is appreciable. Since March 4, when the Pacers began their current 7-12 slide, that impact has disappeared some, with Indiana playing poorly no matter the lineup.