For the “Dow Jones” Bulls, snapping out of their recent slump was as simple as putting the ball in the basket.Jimmy Butler scored 19 points, Rajon Rondo had 10 points, 14 assists and eight rebounds, and the Bulls beat the Detroit Pistons 113-82 on Monday night to end a three-game losing streak.

”Everything looks better when you’re making shots,” Butler said. ”If you’re not making shots, it’s hard to win.”

Taj Gibson added 16 points, Robin Lopez had 14 and Dwyane Wade, Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic had 13 apiece, which had lost six of eight.Jon Leuer scored 16 points for the Pistons, who have dropped three straight and four of five.

”We got crushed,” Detroit coach Stan Van Gundy said. ”It was a disgusting performance by all of us, me included. I mean, it was unprofessional, embarrassing, humiliating. Whatever you want to say, it was terrible.It looks to me like a lack of effort and a lack of heart. And if you don’t play hard, you’re not going to have any confidence. We looked like we were hoping the game would be easy tonight, and it wasn’t. And we just caved.”

After scoring just 69 points in a 26-point loss to Milwaukee on Friday, the Bulls busted out for 69 points in the first two quarters, their best for any half this season.The Bulls, who entered tied for sixth-worst in the NBA with a .436 field-goal percentage, made 17 of 21 shots (81 percent) in taking a 35-19 lead at the end of the first quarter.The Bulls had 15 assists on their 17 field goals, with Rondo (seven) and Butler (six) leading the way.

”That ball was moving so rapidly and everybody was getting rhythm shots,” Butler said. ”When you see your first few go in, it’s a long night for whoever’s guarding you.”

The Bulls still were shooting a blistering 72.7 percent at halftime – they led 69-34 – and even managed to knock down 4 of 6 3-pointers, which had been a problem during their recent struggles.The lead was 97-63 entering the fourth quarter, and the Pistons offered little resistance from there. None of the Bulls starters played in the fourth.

”Give the guys a lot of credit for stepping up,” Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. ”Last week was an embarrassing week for everybody.”

The Pistons held a players-only meeting following Saturday’s 15-point home loss to Indiana, but Van Gundy didn’t place much significance on it. ”Team meeting my (butt),” he said. ”Like I said before, that stuff means nothing. It’s what you do on the court. Talking’s easy.” The Bulls shot a season-best 59.8 percent from the field and tied a season high with 34 assists. Their 15 first-quarter assists are tied (with Golden State) for the most assists in a quarter this season. . Their previous high for a half was 65 points in the first half of a game Oct. 31 at Brooklyn.After not playing the previous two games (both coach’s decisions), Mirotic entered the game with 3:39 left in the first quarter. He hit his first three shots, including a 3-pointer, and finished with 10 points in 12 first-half minutes.

”The big thing was the way he performed at practice,” Hoiberg said. ”He has been coming in to get to work. He was the first guy in the gym four or five straight days. I wanted to get him back in there and he hit a couple of shots.”

A large portion of the Bulls three-hour practice on Sunday was watching lowlights of the 95-69 loss to Milwaukee on Friday.
”Everybody came in with an open mind, took the criticism that they deserved and learned from it and got better,” Butler said.
The Bulls conclude a three-game homestand against Washington on Wednesday night.

ROSEMONT—Billy Garrett Jr. scored 19 points and made the go-ahead free throw with 44 seconds left to lift DePaul over Southeast Missouri State 81-78 in Monday night’s Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic game.Trailing by five at halftime, DePaul closed to 57-55 on Eli Cain’s 3, then led 62-60 on R.J. Curington’s layup. Daniel Simmons’ 3 put the Redhawks back on top, but Cain hit back-to-back 3s amid a 10-2 run and DePaul led 72-67.The Redhawks scored eight straight and led 78-77 on Antonius Cleveland’s dunk with 58 seconds left. Garrett made two free throws to give DePaul a 79-78 edge, then Tre’Darius McCallum made two more to seal it. Jamaal Calvin’s game-tying 3 attempt at the buzzer bounced off the rim.Cain scored 15 and Curington had 13 for the Blue Demons (7-4).Cleveland scored a career-high 28 points and Calvin added 20 with a career-high six 3-pointers for the Redhawks (4-8), who have lost five straight.

Ryan Hartman, Vinnie Hinostroza and Patrick Kane scored in the third period, and the streaking Blackhawks beat the San Jose Sharks 4-1 on Sunday night for their fifth consecutive victory.The division leaders in the Western Conference were tied at 1 when Hinostroza won a faceoff for and Hartman whipped the puck right by Martin Jones on the stick side at 6:59. It was Hartman’s first goal since Nov. 25 at Anaheim, ending an 11-game drought.Hinostroza then got his third of the season when he shot it through Jones’ legs at 17:40 on a break with Marian Hossa. Hinostroza also scored the game winner in the Hawks 6-4 win at St. Louis on Saturday night.Kane added an empty-netter as Hawks improved to 13-2-3 at home. Duncan Keith scored his first goal of the season in the second, and Scott Darling made 33 saves.Joe Pavelski scored for San Jose, which had won four in a row. Jones finished with 22 stops.San Jose jumped in front when Pavelski deflected Brent Burns’ long wrist shot past Darling at 1:13 of the second. It looked as if the puck also might have gone off the stick of Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson on its way to the net.It was Pavelski’s third goal in four games and No. 11 on the year.The Sharks then started buzzing around the Blackhawks’ end. Patrick Marleau got open for a tip in front, but Darling was there. Chris Tierney shot it off the left post with about 4:45 left in the period.The Blackhawks picked up the tying goal when Keith drove a pass from Artemi Panarin past Jones from just inside the blue line at 16:49. Panarin extended his point streak to five games with his 19th assist.Darling took over from there, improving to 6-2-1 in his ninth straight start since Corey Crawford was sidelined by an emergency appendectomy on Dec. 3. Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said they talked about starting rookie Lars Johansson against the Sharks, but they decided to stay with Darling despite signs of fatigue the past couple games.It worked out quite well for the Hawks, who have won six of seven overall.

NOTES—Crawford skated again before the game and could return Friday against Colorado. ”He was out there today with some players, so he got some good work again today,” Quenneville said. Crawford, who turns 32 on Dec. 31, is 12-6-2 with a 2.27 goals-against average in 20 games this season. … Blackhawks C Artem Anisimov was sidelined with the usual unidentified injury. He is day to day. … Pavelski has 30 points in 34 career games against the Hawks…..The Blackhawks are home to Ottawa on Tuesday night.

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John Fox, with nothing to lose, went for a tying field goal with under two minutes to play, and left Green Bay more than enough time to get in field goal range.Aaron Rodgers hit Jordy Nelson with a 60-yard pass to set up Mason Crosby’s 32-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Green Bay Packers to a 30-27 victory over the Bears in one of the coldest games ever played in Chicago on Sunday afternoon.Wide receiver-turned-running back Ty Montgomery ran for a career-high 162 yards and two touchdowns, and the Packers (8-6) earned their fourth straight victory despite blowing a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter.They also moved ahead of Minnesota for sole possession of second place in the NFC North and pulled within a game of division leader Detroit, with the Vikings getting pounded by Indianapolis and the Lions losing to the New York Giants.The Bears (3-11) had tied it on a field goal by Connor Barth with 1:19 left. The Packers took over at their 27, and on third down at the 26, Rodgers unleashed a deep pass down the middle of the field to Nelson, who got behind Cre’Von LeBlanc.With no timeouts, the Packers downed the ball before Crosby booted his winner.The game-time temperature for their matchup against Green Bay on Sunday was 11 degrees with a minus-4 wind chill.The Bears hosted the Packers in 3-degree temperature and a minus-15 wind chill – the lowest ever for a Bears home game – on Dec. 18, 1983. The Bears’ coldest home game, temperature-wise, was against Green Bay on Dec. 22, 2008, when it was 2 degrees with a minus-13 wind chill.Green Bay, of course, played the coldest NFL game on record when it beat Dallas in the 1967 NFL championship game – the ”Ice Bowl.” Rodgers threw for 252 yards despite problems his left hamstring and right calf that kept him out of practice during the week.Montgomery had several big runs, including a 61-yarder, after coach Mike McCarthy announced he is now a full-time running back. He also scored from the 4 on the game’s opening possession and added a 3-yard TD in the third quarter that made it 20-10.Christine Michael ran for a 42-yard touchdown. Julius Peppers had a strip-sack that led to a field goal. Ha Ha Clinton-Dix added two interceptions, and the Packers tied the NFL’s oldest rivalry for the first time since 1933 at 94-94-6.Matt Barkley threw for 362 yards and two touchdowns, but was picked off three times.Alshon Jeffery came on strong near the end to finish with 89 yards on six catches in his return from a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s policy against performance-enhancing drugs.Deonte Thompson led THE bEARS with 110 yards receiving. Cameron Meredith added nine catches for 104 yards, but the Bears lost for the fifth time in six games.The Packers as though they were on their way to an easy win after that huge third quarter. But the Bears came storming back.An 8-yard touchdown catch by Jeffery and 9-yard run by Jordan Howard midway through the fourth cut it to 27-24.The Bears took over on their 21 with 5:42 remaining and had a third down at the Packers 4 when Micah Hyde reached in front of Meredith at the goal line, forcing the Bears to settle for Barth’s tying field goal.Fox could have gone for it but chose the conservative rout, and it backfired.

NOTES—RB James Starks sat out because of a concussion. McCarthy said the veteran running back was in a car crash Monday…..NT Eddie Goldman was inactive after leaving last week’s game at Detroit because of an ankle injury. … LB Jerrell Freeman served the final game of a four-game suspension for a PED violation…..The Bears host Washington on Saturday.

Illinois went to some unfamiliar offensive weapons to hang on against BYU.Reserve center Maverick Morgan had 14 points and 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season and forward Michael Finke added 10 points off the bench as the Illini edged the Cougars 75-73 on Saturday night.

”We’ve got some guys that can score in there, and they did a good job of getting the ball inside,” Illinois coach John Groce said.

Tracy Abrams scored 15 points, Jalen Coleman-Lands added 12 and Malcolm Hill 10 for the Illini (9-3), who have won five straight.

”They went zone a couple times, they went man,” Abrams said about BYU. ”Just adjusting to the game play and understanding we’ve got to get it down there to the bigs.”

Eric Mika led BYU with 25 points in the second game of the State Farm Chicago Legends doubleheader.BYU (7-4) shot just 43 percent from the field after averaging 85.8 points on the strength of its transition game. Nick Emery added 16 points and TJ Haws 10 for the Cougars.

”Defensively, we took a step in the right direction tonight against a very, very potent offensive team,” Groce said.

Illinois made 10 of 26 3s.The Cougars got within one on Colby Leifson’s 3 with 1:59 left. Morgan made a jumper and Abrams got a steal and a layup before BYU’s L.J. Rose hit a 3 to pull BYU within two with 16.7 seconds left. Hill made two free throws before Rose nailed a jumper to get the Cougars back within two. Emery missed a 3 at the buzzer.

”It came down to really one, two, maybe three big-time plays we needed to make,” Mika said. ”Illinois just did a good job. They made those hustle plays, the 50-50 balls, and we didn’t convert on a couple things that we could have.”

Hill shot 3 for 12 from the field after averaging a team-high 18.9 points.Illinois’ bench outscored BYU’s reserves 28-7.

”They had some big guys,” Mika said. ”They have that rotation we’re they’re all different, but they’re all strong. They can all get rebounds. It was tough getting used to. We saw how they were calling fouls. We were able to fight through it pretty well.”

Illinois led by as much as 16 before BYU went on an 11-0 run and trailed 43-37 at halftime.

”We didn’t come ready to play in the beginning,” Rose said. ”We got a group out there that was ready to compete. They brought us back into the game.”

BYU fell short of a quality win against a Power 5 conference team. The Cougars will close out their nonconference schedule against Idaho State and CSU Bakersfield next week.Illinois started its season on a four-game winning streak before losing three straight and winning its last five.The Illini lead the series against BYU 4-2. The Cougars won the last meeting 80-75 in 1980 in Knoxville, Tenn. … The State Farm Chicago Legends recognized the city’s basketball tradition. Former DePaul player Mark Aguirre and the late coach Ray Meyer, both Chicago natives, were honored during halftime. … The Cubs’ World Series trophy made an appearance. … Illinois is 37-14 at the United Center.Redshirt freshman forward Kipper Nichols played one minute in his first game with Illinois. After he originally signed with Tulane, Nichols transferred last December and sat out a year per transfer requirements.Illinois will play its Braggin’ Rights game against Missouri on Wednesday in St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS—Vinnie Hinostroza scored a late tiebreaking goal and Patrick Kane broke out of a 10-game goal-scoring drought as the Blackhawks beat the St. Louis Blues 6-4 on Saturday night.Dennis Rasmussen, Brian Campbell, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Artemi Panarin also scored for the Blackhawks, who have won have four straight. Scott Darling made 23 saves to improve to 9-2-2.Patrik Berglund scored twice for the Blues, who had recorded at least one point in each of their last 14 home games. Alex Pietrangelo and Kyle Brodziak also scored for the Blues, who fell to 13-2-3 at home.Hjalmarsson started the comeback by scoring in the first minute of third period to tie the score at 4-4.Hinostroza converted with 4:25 left for his first game-winning goal of the season. Panarin added an empty netter.

Sanjay Lumpkin had 14 points and 14 rebounds, Bryant McIntosh had 13 points, and Northwestern survived a dismal second half for a 67-64 victory over Dayton on Saturday night.Scottie Lindsey and Nathan Taphorn added 11 points apiece as Northwestern (9-2) won its sixth straight. The game was the first of a doubleheader at the United Center as part of the State Farm Chicago Legends.Scoochie Smith had 18 points and Charles Cooke added 12 for Dayton (7-3), which had its five-game winning streak snapped.Northwestern, which led by as many as 24, took charge early and appeared headed for a laugher. The Wildcats raced to an 11-0 lead less than four minutes into the game as Dayton missed its first eight shots.Northwestern took a 40-17 halftime lead as Dayton made just 4 of 28 field-goal attempts, a 14.3 percent shooting percentage.Cooke, who averaged 20 points in the first nine games, was scoreless in the first half on 0-for-5 shooting in 16 minutes.The Flyers began the second half by making their first three shots and cut the deficit to 59-55 with 1:28 left on a 3-pointer by Smith. Northwestern had missed 10 straight field goals before McIntosh hit an 18-footer to make it 61-55 with a minute to play.The Wildcats hung on from there.Although the Flyers entered the game with a 31-13 record against Power 5 conferences over the last 10 years, they were outclassed early on before rallying in the second half. Had Dayton started the game with some of the fire it showed after halftime, the result might have been different.Northwestern: How the Wildcats perform during Big Ten play will ultimately determine whether they make their first trip to the NCAA Tournament in March, but they’ve put themselves in good position with a strong showing in the non-conference portion of the schedule – despite the limp to the finish line on Saturday. NU’s two losses were against teams currently ranked (Butler and Notre Dame) by a combined six points.The Wildcats wrap up the non-conference schedule with a pair of home games, IUPUI on Tuesday and Houston Baptist on Thursday.

Milton Doyle had 22 points and five steals and Loyola rallied in the final minute to force overtime and beat crosstown rival UIC 81-75 on Saturday.The win is the fifth straight win for the Ramblers and their fourth in a row over the Flames.Loyola trailed 68-65 with seven seconds left. However after UIC’s Tai Odiase missed a pair free throws to ice it, Donte Ingram drilled a 3 at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.After the Flames Marcus Ottey hit a 3-pointer to tie it at 73 with 1:30 left, Ingram and Ben Richardson scored on back-to-back possessions to give the Ramblers (10-2) the lead for good. UIC got back to 77-75, but two free throws apiece from Ingram and Doyle iced it.Ingram finished with 20 points and nine rebounds.Freshmen Godwin Boahen led the Flames (5-6) with 19 points and K.J. Santos added 14. Both are career highs.

ROSEMONT—Eli Cain hit seven 3-pointers – one shy of DePaul’s single-game record – and scored a career-high 31 points, Tre’Darius McCallum had his second-career double-double and DePaul cruised to a 109-61 win over Chicago State on Saturday.Cain made 11 of 15 from the field and had four assists, while McCallum made all three of his 3-point shots, scored a career-high 18 points and tied a career best with 12 rebounds. Freshman Devin Gage, who came in with four assists this season, had seven and nine points.It was DePaul’s highest scoring output since beating Chicago State 114-81 on Nov. 14, 2010.Chicago State (3-8) took its only lead on Joshua Batson’s jumper 11 seconds in. Cain answered with a 3-pointer, the first of four during a 22-0 run and DePaul (6-4) led 60-22 at halftime.The Blue Demons made 38 of 57 (66.7 percent) from the field, including 13 of 20 from 3-point range.Fred Sims Jr. had 19 points and Trayvon Palmer scored 10 with nine boards for Chicago State.

INDIANAPOLIS—Caleb Swanigan had 26 points and 10 rebounds, Vincent Edwards finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and No. 15 Purdue escaped with an 86-81 victory over No. 21 Notre Dame on Saturday, the Boilermakers’ first win in the Crossroads Classic since it began six years ago.Swanigan’s three-point play at the end of a 13-2 run gave the Boilermakers a 70-67 lead with 9:41 to play.The Boilermakers (9-2) opened the second half with a 12-2 run to cut the deficit to four and then went on a 10-0 run midway through the half to take a lead.The Fighting Irish (9-2) blew a 16-point lead against Indiana in the Crossroads Classic a year ago and lost that game 80-73.Bonzie Colson had 23 points and 10 rebounds and Matt Farrell finished with 22 points, 10 assists and five rebounds for Notre Dame, which has lost two straight.Purdue struggled to make baskets in the first half while Notre Dame jumped ahead and led by as many as 17 points when Martinas Geben made two free throws to put the Fighting Irish ahead 48-31 with 1:45 remaining in the first half.Notre Dame led 52-38 at halftime.After slipping into the AP Top 25 two weeks ago, the Fighting Irish have lost two straight. Notre Dame lost to top-ranked Villanova a week ago.The Boilermakers needed this win after their only two losses this season came against ranked opponents – No. 11 Louisville on Nov. 30 and No. 1 Villanova in the second game of the season. The victory over Notre Dame was the first against a ranked team.Notre Dame will look to get back on track at home against Colgate on Monday……Purdue will take the momentum into a home game against Western Illinois on Monday.