2018-19Regular SeasonRound 27
Real Madrid 92
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan 89
March 20, 2019 CET: 21:00
Local time: 21:00 WIZINK CENTER

Madrid rallies past Milan

In a high-scoring battle between EuroLeague powerhouse, Real Madrid held off AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan 92-89 in the Spanish capital on Wednesday. Madrid improved to 21-6 to remain third in the standings. Milan dropped to 14-13 and now has the same record as KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, Olympiacos Piraeus and Panathinaikos OPAP Athens in a group of teams ranking between sixth and ninth place. Sergio Llull led the winners with 14 points, Anthony Randolph added 13 while Gustavo Ayon had 11 points and 10 rebounds for Madrid. Mike James paced Milan with a career-high 35 points. James Nunnally and Nemanja Nedovic each added 16 for the visitors. James had 17 points in the first quarter and got help from Nunnally to give Milan a 19-33 margin after 10 minutes. Milan boosted its margin to 19-37 early in the second quarter, but Ayon led a 10-0 run that brought Madrid within 50-56 at halftime. Llull and Randolph took over after the break and helped Madrid to a 73-65 advantage. A three-pointer by Nunnally lifted Milan to a 74-75 edge at the end of the third quarter. Madrid quickly took the lead and extended it to 92-84 with 2 minutes left. Milan got within 92-89, but missed two shots from beyond the arc in the final seconds.

Fabien Causeur and Edy Tavares scored down low early and Llull banked in a floater for a 6-4 Madrid lead. James and Vladimir Micov fueled a 0-6 run highlighted by Kaleb Tarczewski's alley-oop dunk. Randolph took over with a triple and a couple of jumpers, but James got help from Nunnally, whose corner three-pointer caused Madrid to call timeout at 13-20. Llull struck from downtown and Tavares dunked, but an unstoppable James followed a jumper with a three-pointer and added a wild one-handed floater to boost his team's lead to 18-30. Nunnally buried another triple to give Milan a 19-33 margin after 10 minutes. James kept pushing Milan with a driving layup and Nunnally copied him for a 19-37 score early in the second quarter. Ayon tried to ignite the hosts' comeback with a three-point play and a put-back layup and Trey Thompkins struck from beyond the arc, which prompted Milan to call timeout at 29-40. James went to the bench, but Nedovic stepped up with 7 quick points and gave Milan fresh air at 34-49. Facu Campazzo downed a three-pointer and got help from Rudy Fernandez and Ayon to bring Madrid closer, 44-49, after a 10-0 run. Felipe Reyes scored twice in the paint, but James and Mindaugas Kuzminskas restored a 50-56 Milan lead at halftime. Randolph sank a triple right after the break and added an off-balance jumper to get Madrid within 57-60. Tavares stepped up with a tip-in before a three-pointer by Jeffery Taylor completed the hosts' comeback at 62-60. Tarczewski took over with a dunk-and-foul, but Llull improved that with a couple of three-pointers. Randolph and Tavares kept powering the offensive glass and Llull struck again from downtown for a 73-65 Madrid lead. James rescued Milan with 7 quick points and Nunnally downed one from beyond the arc for a 74-75 Milan edge after 30 minutes. Thompkins hit a jumper early in the fourth quarter and a layup by Jaycee Carroll gave the hosts a 78-75 lead. Nedovic beat the shot clock with a jumper and added a layup, but Campazzo and Carroll kept the hosts ahead, 82-79. Consecutive put-back layups by Ayon and Fernandez resulted in a Milan timeout at 86-80. James hit another triple, but Carroll and Tavares fueled a 6-0 run highlighted by Thompkins's dunk that seemed to seal the outcome, 92-84. Nunnally downed a triple and a driving basket by James forced Madrid to call timeout at 92-89 in the next-to-last minute. Jeff Brooks and Nunnally missed from downtown late in the game, allowing Madrid to celebrate a comeback win.

Pivotal performer

Gustavo Ayon made the difference in the paint and stepped up when Los Blancos were trailing by double digits in the second quarter. He finished the game with 11 points and just 1 missed shot, 10 rebounds and 1 assist for a performance index rating of 18.

Game-changing moment

A three-pointer by Mike James brought Milan within 86-84, but Jaycee Carroll hit a baseline jumper, Walter Tavares added a layup and Facu Campazzo send a wild behind-the-back assist to Trey Thompkins for a fast break slam. Madrid got a 92-84 lead and managed to stay ahead until the final buzzer.

Stellar stat

Milan hit 16 of its first 19 shots (84.2%), including 5 from downtown without a miss, but went on to score 13 of 42 shots (30.9%), including 5 of 20 from beyond the arc (25%). Once Madrid managed to change Milan's shots with its defense, the hosts managed to return to the game and eventually win it.

Did you notice?

Reyes became the EuroLeague's all-time leader in games played. He stepped on the court with 4:58 left in the second quarter, which marked the 342nd EuroLeague game for Reyes. He took over the all-time record from Juan Carlos Navarro, who retired last season after appearing in 341 EuroLeague games over 17 seasons, all with FC Barcelona.

Next game

Both teams return to EuroLeague action on Friday. Madrid visits KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz at 20:30 CET. Fifteen minutes later, Milan hosts Panathinaikos OPAP Athens.

Anthony Randolph - Real Madrid - EB18
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: PUKL,SASA; KOROMILAS, ELIAS; MANTYLA, PETRI
Attendance: 8978
By Quarter1234
Real Madrid19312418
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan33231914
End of Quarter1234
Real Madrid19507492
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan33567589
Real Madrid
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 CAUSEUR, FABIEN 17:10 2 1/5     1 2 3 2   1         2
3 RANDOLPH, ANTHONY 22:09 13 2/4 2/6 3/4   2 2 2         2 3 11
5 FERNANDEZ, RUDY 22:50 9 2/5 1/5 2/2 1 2 3     1     1 1 4
7 CAMPAZZO, FACUNDO 20:01 7 1/1 1/4 2/2   6 6 5 2 2     2 3 16
9 REYES, FELIPE 4:59 4 2/2     1   1           2   3
14 AYON, GUSTAVO 15:26 11 5/6   1/1 4 6 10 1         4 1 18
20 CARROLL, JAYCEE 15:28 7 3/7 0/1 1/1       1         2 1 2
22 TAVARES, WALTER 24:31 9 4/4   1/2 4 5 9 1 1 1 1   3 5 21
23 LLULL, SERGIO 21:38 14 1/9 4/9     1 1 4       2 2 1 3
24 DECK, GABRIEL 7:49 2 1/1               1         1
33 THOMPKINS, TREY 12:52 9 3/5 1/1   1 2 3 1         2 1 10
44 TAYLOR, JEFFERY 15:07 5 0/2 1/2 2/4 1   1 2         2 2 3
Team           3 2 5               5
Totals 200:00 92 25/51 10/28 12/16 16 28 44 19 3 6 1 2 22 18 99
        49% 35.7% 75%
Head coach: LASO, PABLO
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
00 DELLA VALLE, AMEDEO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2 JAMES, MIKE 36:48 35 7/9 4/9 9/9   8 8 3   6       4 37
5 MICOV, VLADIMIR 21:08 8 4/7 0/1     3 3 1 1     1 2 1 7
15 TARCZEWSKI, KALEB 20:17 7 2/3   3/3 2 2 4       1   4 3 10
16 NEDOVIC, NEMANJA 20:16 16 4/5 2/4 2/4   3 3 1   2     5 3 11
19 KUZMINSKAS, MINDAUGAS 16:19 7   0/2 7/8 2 1 3 2         1 6 14
20 CINCIARINI, ANDREA DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
21 NUNNALLY, JAMES 33:08 16 2/7 4/6     2 2 1 1 1     1 3 14
23 BURNS, CHRISTIAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
32 BROOKS, JEFF 23:44   0/1 0/1   1 3 4 2   1     3    
55 JERRELLS, CURTIS 8:37   0/1 0/2                   1 1 -3
92 OMIC, ALEN 19:43   0/3   0/2 1 3 4   1   1   2 1  
Team           2 3 5     1         4
Totals 200:00 89 19/36 10/25 21/26 8 28 36 10 3 11 2 1 19 22 94
        52.8% 40% 80.8%
Head coach: PIANIGIANI, SIMONE

Head Coaches

LASO, PABLO
Real Madrid
"First of all, congratulations to my team for the victory. What I said before the game doesn't mean much now after yesterday's results. We will be at least third in the standings. The team has been able to fight for a win, which was hard for us from the beginning. They had a lot of faith and are a really talented team. We were able to enter the game little by little and find defensive and offensive resources, which helped us have the feeling that we dominated the game. In the end, we won the last three quarters by 8, 5 and 4 points after a start of the game in which we were behind. That talks well about our team's character in a game in which being honest, I don't think we played brilliant, but little by little we managed to get the work done. It is a EuroLeague game and for us, it is really important to have the feeling that the team always fights at home and even when the initial goals are achieved, we fight for the best position possible in the standings. I am happy; I think that everybody contributed to the team. We will try to bounce back physically in 10 very demanding days that started with the game against Khimki last week. We will play against Baskonia in Vitoria in less than 48 hours and against Barcelona [in the Spanish League] on Sunday."
PIANIGIANI, SIMONE
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan
"I think it is very clear that we approached the game in the right way, with the right flow on offense, building good shots, but after we built the gap - it was an important gap - we let Madrid recover too fast, because we suffered too much on Tarczewski's fouls and when we started to give players some rest. So the second quarter changed the game for us - these 31 points that we allowed Real to score in the second quarter was the key of the game for me. Then in the second half, we tried, played face to face and more or less arrived to the end, but we didn't score and didn't build the right shots for two-three offenses and lost the chance here. Against Madrid, it is not simple; I think that we showed, one more time, that our team is improving, playing the whole EuroLeague season face to face against everybody, everywhere. Despite all of the problems that we had, my players and the club deserve to fight until the end for the playoffs. It will be difficult, because there are three other top teams fighting until the end, but over the big injuries that we suffered during this season, to play like we did tonight and fight like this is good sign for us, for the future of this team."

Players

LLULL, SERGIO
Real Madrid
"We are happy to add another win, especially at home, in front of our fans. It was a balanced, high-scoring game - logically, it was not our best game, but we managed to get a win and stay up there in the standings, so we are happy. We allowed too many points in the first half. We didn't have a good game on defense and that didn't allow us to play at our rhythm or control the game rhythm. We were following their pace in the first half, but I believe we improved after that, playing better, moving the ball better and were able to win. I am 100% physically and can enjoy playing basketball and helping my teammates. I am running out of words to describe Felipe - another record, most games played in the EuroLeague. I think he still has a lot of records to beat because he still can play for a long time. He has a great work ethic and that is very important. He improves every year, adapting his game to the changes in basketball year after year, which is the key. I don't think I will play until age 39. I wish!"
REYES, FELIPE
Real Madrid
"I am very happy and proud to make this record. It is very special for me to be the player who played the most games in this difficult competition. Now, I am very happy because we won and that is what is most important for me. My best memory is when we won the EuroLeague in 2015 and last year. This is the best moment because when you win, you only can choose this and for me this is the most special."
TAVARES, WALTER
Real Madrid
"We feel good because Milan is a hard team to play against. They play too fast and James made some unbelievable shots. We kept up with our intensity, our focus, and that helped us win the game. I feel Felipe can still make more history and can play more years. He looks great every year and it is hard to play against him in practice because he is so strong. He can play until whenever he wants - five years, six years, it is unbelievable! It is an honor to play with him because he is one of the great players in Europe. For me, it is honor to play beside him and learn from him."