DETROIT—Darren Helm scored on Detroit’s sixth attempt in the shootout and Jonas Gustavsson stopped Andrew Shaw’s shot, lifting the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-4 victory against the Blackhawks on Wednesday night.The defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks faced Detroit for the first time since beating them in overtime in Game 7 of their second-round series last year to complete a comeback from a 3-1 deficit.Hawk captain Jonathan Toews scored on his team’s first attempt in the shootout and Patrick Sharp scored on the second before Patrick Kane was stopped with a chance to win the game.Gustavsson, playing for the injured Jimmy Howard, made 31 saves in his first game in nearly a month.Corey Crawford gave up four goals on the first 17 shots he faced and finished with 27 saves for the Blackhawks.

CLEVELAND—Luol Deng misses his close friends and the Bulls seem to be getting along fine without him.D.J. Augustin scored 27 points in a start for Kirk Hinrich and Taj Gibson matched a career high with 26 filling in for Carlos Boozer as the Bulls improved to 7-2 since trading the popular Deng with a 98-87 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.Augustin and Mike Dunleavy hit 3-pointers down the stretch to pace the Bulls, who have won three straight, nine of 11 and moved over .500 for the first time since Nov. 22.The Bulls reached the season’s mid-point at 21-20, not where many expected the Bulls to be sitting after dealing Deng.The two-time All-Star was a non-factor in his first game against his former team, which traded him for draft picks on Jan. 6. Deng went just 2 of 11 from the field and scored 11 points in 40 minutes.
“It was strange,” Deng said. “It’s the Cavs versus the Bulls and not so much about me. In terms of me, I could have played better.”
Joakim Noah had 18 rebounds for the Bulls, who appeared to be looking toward the future when they traded Deng, not long after losing superstar Derrick Rose to a season-ending injury.But the Bulls aren’t fading away as coach Tom Thibodeau has them playing with their usual defensive tenacity.Deng’s not around, but the Bulls remain as tough as always.
“It’s one of the things I respect about our team,” Thibodeau said. “They respond to every challenge. They have a lot of heart. They’re playing together. Each day they have the right approach. If someone’s out, the next five get in there and get the job done. We’re short-handed. We understand how hard we have to play to give ourselves a chance to win.”
Kyrie Irving scored 26 to lead Cleveland, which has dropped the first two games of a five-game homestand. The Cavs have lost all of their momentum after going 3-2 on the road.
“We’re not making any excuses here,” Irving said. “We’ve got to pick it up.”
Although they were missing two starters in Boozer (calf) and Hinrich (hamstring), the Bulls had more than enough to hold off the Cavaliers.Making just his fourth start, Gibson scored 12 in the third as the Bulls opened a 71-62 lead entering the fourth.Dunleavy’s 3-pointer extended the lead to 12 in the opening minute of the final quarter, but the Cavs fought back behind Dion Waiters and pulled to 84-81 on his 3. However, Dunleavy scored again, Noah made a layup and Augustin buried a 3-pointer to give the Bulls a 91-81 lead.The Cavs were still within 93-87 when Dunleavy knocked down another 3-pointer with 38 seconds left to seal the win.Dunleavy added 22 points for the Bulls, who got just four points from their bench.Waiters had 15 for Cleveland.Deng spent 10 seasons with the Bulls, and the 28-year-old knew it would be challenging to oppose his ex-teammates.
“It’s definitely going to be weird because it’s guys I’m really close with and it feels like just yesterday I was going to battle with them and now I’m going against them,” he said at the morning shootaround.Following the game, Deng acknowledged it was difficult to face players he knows so well.
“I tried to really play the game within myself,” he said. “They played good D. I missed shots. I’m not happy with my performance. That’s a good defensive team. We’ve just got to keep growing.”
Before the opening tip, Deng ran over to the Bulls bench and hugged Thibodeau and shook hands with all of the team’s assistant coaches.
“It says a lot about who he is,” Thibodeau said. “That didn’t surprise me.”
Gibson said there were some awkward moments going against Deng.
“It felt weird,” Gibson said. “There was tension before the game because we weren’t talking. It’s like Tibs said, `We love him but we’re going to go knock him on his butt if he tries to score. After the game, we’re going to be friends.'”
Outworked by a depleted team, the Cavs fell behind by 10 early in the second quarter and were down 35-29 when Irving heated up.He made five consecutive 3-pointers in the final 5:45 of the second quarter to give the Cavs a 44-43 lead at halftime.

NOTES—Deng spent nearly 20 minutes after the shootaround discussing his days in Chicago, which ended shortly after he rejected a three-year, $30 million contract extension, an offer and pay cut that he and his agents didn’t find adequate. Asked if he would consider returning to the Bulls as a free agent this summer, Deng took a swipe at the Bulls front office. “Maybe they’ll offer me three years, $30 million,” he cracked. “That might be an option to take.” … Noah has recorded at least 10 rebounds in 14 straight games, the longest stretch in franchise history since Dennis Rodman posted 43 straight in `97.

NORMAL—Cleanthony Early scored 23 points at No. 5 Wichita State erased a halftime deficit to defeat Illinois State 70-55 Wednesday night.Early added 10 rebounds as the Shockers (20-0, 7-0 Missouri Valley) remained one of three unbeaten teams in college basketball, along with top-ranked Arizona and No. 2 Syracuse.Ryan Baker added 15 points as Wichita used a 22-6 surge out of halftime to quiet a crowd of 9,510, Illinois State’s largest in three years.ISU (11-8, 4-3) had won 10 of 13.The Shockers made 11 of 27 from 3-point range, led by Early’s 6 for 9. Illinois State made just 1 of 25 from deep.Tekele Cotton scored 12 points for Wichita State, the last on a thunderous baseline dunk.Illinois State was led by Daishon Knight, who scored 8 of his 12 from the free throw line. The Redbirds starters combined for just 11 field goals.ISU shot 32 percent overall (19 of 59).

Jon Harris had 18 points and 10 rebounds on Wednesday night as Cleveland State beat UIC 74-64.Anton Grady scored four straight to put Cleveland State up 61-51 with 2:24 and the Vikings held on by making 10 of their final 14 free throws.Bryn Forbes added 20 points for Cleveland State (12-9, 4-3 Horizon League) which led 29-23 at halftime and opened the second on an 11-6 run.Trey Lewis’ 3-pointer for the Vikings with 13:55 left was the first of nine consecutive field goals made by both teams that ended on Kelsey Barlow’s layup for UIC with 10:15 left to make the score 51-40.The Flames (5-15, 0-6) pulled to within 55-49 on Barlow’s 3 with 5:18 and again to 57-51 on Jake Wiegand’s tip-in 26 seconds later, but they never got closer.Wiegand led UIC with 17 points and Jay Parker added 10. UIC has lost 9 straight.

Khristian Smith scored 18 points as Indiana State edged Loyola 65-61 on Wednesday.Indiana State (15-4, 6-1 Missouri Valley) got 14 points from Jake Odum and Brandon Burnett added 10. The Sycamores out-rebounded Loyola 41-28 and made nine more three throws than the Ramblers.Milton Doyle led Loyola (7-12, 2-5) with 20 points, including four 3-pointers. Jeff White added 13 points and Christian Thomas had 11.Loyola led throughout the first half until a Burnett tip-in of a Dawon Cummings miss gave the Sycamores their first lead at 25-24 with 3:02 left before intermission. Indiana State led 28-27 at the half.The game was tied at 48, 50 and 52 in the second half but Odum’s layup and free throw at 5:09 put the Sycamores ahead 55-52, a lead Indiana State never relinquished.

EVANSTON—Drew Crawford scored 19 points and blocked the potential tying 3-pointer at the buzzer to lead Northwestern to a 63-60 double-overtime victory over Purdue hours after a shooting on the Boilermakers’ campus on Tuesday.
Crawford scored four points in the second OT and delivered the big block on Ronnie Johnson off an inbounds pass as time expired to preserve the win.Tre Demps added 19 points, and the Wildcats (10-10, 3-4 Big Ten) prevailed on an emotional night for the Boilermakers (13-6, 3-3).An engineering student opened fire inside a basement classroom at Purdue earlier in the day, killing a teaching assistant, and there was a moment of silence before the game.A group of Northwestern students behind one basket had their chests painted purple with the message ”Stand with Purdue,” a show of solidarity in the wake of an event that rattled a campus. The Boilermakers were not there when the shooting occurred. They made the 140-mile trip from West Lafayette, Ind., on Monday because there was snow in the forecast and there were no classes due to Martin Luther King Day.Against that backdrop, Northwestern never led through regulation or the first overtime but still came away
with its third win in four games.A.J. Hammons had 17 points and 10 rebounds for Purdue. Terone Johnson scored 16, but the Boilermakers came up short after winning three in a row.NU never led until Crawford started the second overtime with a jumper to make it 53-51. Sanjay Lumpkin put the Wildcats back on top with a layup after Hammons hit two free throws for Purdue, and Crawford nailed a jumper from the wing to make it 57-53 with 2:28 remaining.Lumpkin then stole the ball from Kendall Stephens and converted two free throws to make it a six-point game with 1:13 left. But Purdue wasn’t finished.A 3-pointer by Terone Johnson cut it to 61-58 with 56 seconds remaining, and after Lumpkin’s pass went out of bounds off Crawford’s hands with 25 seconds left, things continued to tighten.Terone Johnson made two free throws after getting fouled on a drive to cut it to 61-60 with 17 seconds left, but Demps answered with two of his own to make it a three-point
game.Stephens missed a 3 from the left side, and Crawford blocked Ronnie Johnson’s 3 off an inbounds pass as time expired to preserve the win.Demps’ 3 with 1:36 left in the first OT tied it at 51, and both teams had chances to take the lead. Hammons caught a long inbounds pass and missed a short, wild flip from about 10 feet as time expired, sending it to a second OT.All this came after a wild finish in regulation.JerShon Cobb hit a floater to tie it at 46 with 31 seconds left, and Terone Johnson missed a drive along the right side in the closing seconds to send it to overtime.

TALLAHASSEE—Ian Miller hit a floater in the lane with 4 seconds remaining to give Florida State a 76-74 win against Notre Dame in their first meeting as Atlantic Coast Conference opponents.Aaron Thomas scored 20 points in his first start of the season as Florida State held on. Miller finished with 11 points and the biggest bucket of the game. Teammate Okaro White chipped in 12 points and 11 rebounds.Eric Atkins led Notre Dame with 24 points while teammate Garrick Sherman finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds.Florida State should have been able to put the game away after shooting 58 percent from the floor and a 10-point lead with 7:55 left. But the Seminoles couldn’t get stops in the second half. Notre Dame’s Pat Connaughton hit a layup with 34 seconds left to tie at 74-74.Then it was Miller time.The Seminoles took a time out and left Miller isolated at the top of the key while the Fighting Irish sat in a zone. Miller passed the ball twice and got it
right back before driving into the teeth of the defense and flipping up a floater in the paint to win the game with 4 seconds left.

”He hit a tough shot,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. ”You’ve got to give a really good player a lot of credit for knocking down a big shot at a key time.”

The Seminoles (13-5, 4-2) have won 8 of 10 with both losses against Virginia. Florida State hits the road Saturday to take on No. 18 Duke.Notre Dame (11-8, 2-4) has gone 1-4 since upsetting Duke. The Fighting Irish face Wake Forest Saturday.The Seminoles couldn’t miss from behind the arc in the first half, hitting 5 of 7. That left Florida State 21 of 31 combined in their last three halves at home.The Florida State offense ran through 7-footers Boris Bojanovsky and Michael Ojo early, but it was the long-ball that kept Notre Dame on its heels throughout the half. Twelve offensive rebounds, however, gave the Fighting Irish extra possessions throughout the game.White didn’t start for the first time all season for Florida State. He was reprimanded before the game by the ACC for conduct at the end of the 78-66 loss at Virginia. Thomas started in his place and White checked in at the 16:35 mark of the first half.

Joakim Noah with Taj Gibson after his winning layup at the buzzer(Sun Times Photo)

With nine-tenths of a second left, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau drew up a play for Taj Gibson. He told the athletic forward to attack the basket and use his left hand.Done, and done.Gibson got a nice bounce pass from Mike Dunleavy and made a lefty layup at the buzzer in overtime, lifting the Bulls to a 102-100 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night.

“You don’t have a lot of time in that situation. It is a quick read,” Thibodeau said. “Dunleavy made a great play on it and Taj obviously. But we needed everyone to sell the play. We had good fortune on it.”

Dunleavy had to inbound from underneath the basket and found Gibson cutting down the middle. He then muscled toward the hoop for the winning basket, which was confirmed by a video review by the officials.

“It was a good play,” Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said. “It was designed well and they executed well. We played baseline and didn’t slide over.”

Gibson said it was his first winning buzzer-beater at any level.

“They always crack jokes on me in practice about trying to use my left and today I proved them wrong,” a grinning Gibson said.

Joakim Noah had 17 points, 21 rebounds and six assists for the Bulls (20-20), which has won eight of 10 to get back to .500 for the first time since Nov. 27. D.J. Augustin had a season-high 27 points, and Jimmy Butler finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds.Nick Young had 31 points for the Lakers (16-26), including a tying baseline jumper with 6 seconds left in overtime. The streaky sub also made three free throws with 4.1 seconds left in regulation, tying it at 93.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Young said. “We both fought hard today, but we felt like we were competing and was in it. That’s all we can ask for. I don’t think any of us wanted to do another overtime. But if we had to, we would have.”

The Lakers were coming off a 112-106 victory at Toronto on Sunday. They also played Friday night at Boston, winning 107-104 to stop a six-game slide.Even with such little rest, the Lakers managed to score the first five points in overtime. But Augustin led the Bulls right back, driving for a layup that gave the Bulls a 100-98 lead with 1:30 left.Augustin had to shoulder the load at the point after Kirk Hinrich departed in the third with a right hamstring injury.

“We like to close games with D.J. and Kirk,” Thibodeau said. “That allows you to bring D.J. off some catch-and-shoot things and into the pick and roll. We didn’t have that option so we had to go to some other things.”

Pau Gasol had 20 points and 19 rebounds for Los Angeles, and Jodie Meeks added 16 points and seven assists.The Lakers’ visit to Chicago had none of the usual luster that had been a staple of the games between two of the NBA’s most successful franchises over the years. The best players on each team are sidelined by serious injuries, making it next to impossible for Los Angeles to keep up in the loaded Western Conference and casting doubt on Chicago’s goal of winning the title.Los Angeles is playing without star guards Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash, the headliners of a long list of injuries for the Lakers, especially in the backcourt. Bryant broke a bone in his left knee Dec. 17 at Memphis, and Nash is out with a back problem.

“Just been riding the bike, trying to stay in shape that way,” Bryant said before the game. “Not much I can really do in terms of running and things of that nature. Mainly just focused on doing bike work.”

While Bryant and Nash could return in the next couple of weeks, the Bulls will play the rest of the season without star point guard Derrick Rose. The 2011 NBA MVP had surgery on Nov. 25 after he tore the medial meniscus in his right knee in a game at Portland.The Bulls also traded All-Star Luol Deng to Cleveland on Jan. 7 for draft picks and Andrew Bynum, and then promptly waived the enigmatic center in a salary dump.With Bryant watching from the sideline, the Lakers rallied after a slow start. Young had 13 of his 17 first-half points in the second quarter as Los Angeles erased a five-point deficit on their way to a 52-49 lead at the break.Noah had 11 points and 10 rebounds at halftime, continuing a career-best run that could lead to a second straight All-Star appearance for the post player. He has grabbed at least 10 boards in 13 straight games for the franchise’s longest streak since Tyson Chandler also had a 13-game run during the 2006-07 season.

“I just want to help this team win,” Noah said.

NOTES—Lakers swingman Xavier Henry (right knee bone bruise) could return soon. He is expected to step up his rehab work when the Lakers practice Wednesday in Miami. … The Bulls announced earlier in the day that they had re-signed F Cartier Martin to a second 10-day contract.

ROSEMONT—Semaj Christon dominated with 27 points, Justin Martin scored 18 and Xavier beat DePaul 84-74 Monday for its 10th win in 11 games.The Musketeers (15-4, 5-1 Big East) led by 18 at the half behind scorching starts by Christon and Martin and hung on in the second half after DePaul pulled within seven.Christon, who came in averaging a team-high 16.3 points, finished one shy of his career high set against Marquette on Jan. 9. He had 19 points in the first half alone and hit nine of 19 shots in the game, with no trouble driving to the rim.Martin scored 14 in the first half and finished with three 3-pointers to go with seven rebounds, and Xavier hung on after things got tight down the stretch. DePaul was within 72-65 after Billy Garrett Jr. hit a free throw with 5:50 remaining, but the Musketeers’ Isaiah Philmore scored on a layup to start a 9-1 run. Cleveland Melvin led DePaul with 25 points. Garrett scored 18, but the Blue Demons (10-10, 2-5) hit just 22 of 38 free throws on the way to their second straight loss. Wins over Butler and St. John’s gave them back-to-back Big East victories for the first time in six years, but after getting blown out by Villanova on Saturday, DePaul came up short again.Losing two starters to injuries probably didn’t help.Center Tommy Hamilton IV left with a chest injury in the first half while defending a traveling Matt Stainbrook. And guard Charles McKinney twisted his left ankle on defense about six minutes into the second.Early on, it looked like this would be a blowout.After rallying from 17 down to beat Georgetown on Wednesday, Xavier led 50-32 after a dominant first half. The Musketeers had no trouble getting inside and they went on a 17-5 run with the game tied at 22 with about eight-and-a-half minutes left in the first half.Martin started it by banking in a pull-up jumper while getting fouled by Young and hitting the free throw to complete the three-point play. James Farr, from nearby Evanston, Ill., then nailed a 3-pointer, and Christon broke for a dunk after Garrett lost his dribble, making it 30-22.The Musketeers continued to pour it on after a layup by Young.Stainbrook answered with a basket and Martin buried a 3 to make it 35-24. Xavier then responded to a 3 by Melvin with a layup by Christon and a neat reverse baseline drive by Dee Davis, who pumped in mid-air, to make it 39-27 and cap the run with just under four minutes left in the half.The pace slowed in the second half, and DePaul made several pushes but couldn’t sustain them.

WASHINGTON—Davante Gardner scored 20 points, Steve Taylor scored 10 of his 14 points after halftime, and preseason Big East favorite Marquette needed overtime to win its first road conference game of the season Monday night, dominating the extra period to beat slumping Georgetown 80-72.Todd Mayo’s 3-pointer with 6.3 seconds remaining in regulation completed a comeback from a seven-point deficit in the final three minutes to tie the score, and the Golden Eagles (11-8, 3-3 Big East) scored the first seven points of overtime. Marquette then went 8 for 8 from the free-throw line to hold the lead.Markel Starks scored a career-high 28 points, and D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera had 24 for the Hoyas (11-7, 3-4), who have lost four of five and suffered a second-half collapse for the third straight game.Gardner grabbed an offensive rebound and made the putback while falling backward, and John Dawson followed with a 3-pointer to give Marquette a 72-65 lead in overtime. Georgetown went 3 for 8 from the field in the extra period.The Golden Eagles and Hoyas were picked to finish 1-2 in the relaunched Big East in the conference’s preseason coaches’ poll, and neither has come close to living up to expectations. The game ended a streak of seven consecutive Marquette-Georgetown games in which at least one team was ranked in the Top 25.The Golden Eagles’ shooting became progressively worse over its four previous games, with their field goal percentage dropping from 51.3 to 46.8 to 46.9 to 30.8. They stopped the trend against the Hoyas by shooting 44 percent.Georgetown had blown double-digit, second-half leads in back-to-back losses, prompting coach John Thompson III into major changes to his playing rotation. Seldom-used sophomore guard Stephen Domingo and role-playing senior guard John Caprio came off the bench early in the first half, giving Starks and Smith-Rivera a break from the heavy minutes they’ve been playing in recent games.The Hoyas remain without Joshua Smith, who sat out for his fifth consecutive game for academic reasons, and Jabril Trawick, who missed his fourth game with a broken jaw and isn’t expected to return for weeks.Neither team led by more than seven in a first half that included more fouls (19) than made field goals (18). In the second half, Taylor, who was a starter at the beginning of the season but has played sparingly in conference play, began teaming with Gardner to give the Golden Eagles a strong inside game.But Smith-Rivera and Starks combined for 19 straight Georgetown points during a long second-half stretch, capped by Starks’ fast-break layup that gave the Hoyas a 56-49 lead with 4:54 remaining.The Golden Eagles cut into the lead with a 3-pointer by Jake Thomas and a driving dunk by Jamil Wilson, making the score 60-58 with 2 minutes to play. The lead then alternated between two and four until Starks missed 1 of 2 free throws with 17 seconds to play, giving Mayo the chance to tie.