Nikola Mirotic had a triumphant return to his former home
Milan surprises Barcelona at Palau Blaugrana, 81-94

EA7 Emporio Armani Milan remained red-hot in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague by topping FC Barcelona 81-94 at Palau Blaugrana in Round 15 on Friday night.
Milan improved to 9-6 in the standings and is on a six-game winning streak, while Barca dropped to 8-7. Zach LeDay paced the winners with a career-high 33 points. Nikola Mirotic added 19 while Shavon Shields had 11 for Milan. Kevin Punter led Barca with 18 points. Justin Anderson added 17 and Jan Vesely had 13 for the hosts.
Game Videos
Shields got Milan going with a driving layup. Jan Vesely erased it with his trademark mid-range jumper and found Anderson for a corner triple, good for a 5-2 lead. Mirotic stepped up for Milan, but Tomas Satoransky scored in penetration and fed Punter for a three-pointer. Jabari Parker found space for an uncontested layup, then Mirotic and Vesely each struck from downtown for a 15-9 score. LeDay improved Parker's jumper with a three-point play, then Willy Hernangomez added back-to-back layups to make Milan call a timeout at 21-12. LeDay and Shields made free throws before Dario Brizuela's triple boosted the hosts' lead to 24-16 after 10 minutes.
Ousmane Diop scored around the basket and Mirotic added a stop-and-pop triple to bring Milan within 24-21. Brizuela answered from downtown and Joel Parra matched Mirotic's jump hook with a backdoor slam. Diop kept pacing Milan and Nico Mannion made it a two-point game, 29-27. Freddie Gillespie hit a jump hook, Vesely answered with a jumper and Armoni Brooks's deep three-pointer got Milan even closer, 33-32. Anderson rescued Barca from the foul line and Parker struck from beyond the arc for a 38-32 lead. LeDay followed an off-balance jumper with a bomb from downtown in a 0-6 run that tied it at 38-38. Anderson scored down low and added a three-pointer, then Fabien Causeur's driving layup fixed the halftime score at 43-40.
Punter buried a turnaround jumper soon after the break. Shields followed a highly-contested jumper with a coast-to-coast layup to make it a one-point game, 45-44. Satoransky stepped up with a backdoor layup and a jump hook, Mannion and Anderson traded layups and Punter gave Barca fresh air at 52-46. Juan Nunez and Causeur each struck from beyond the arc for their respective teams, then LeDay did even better with a four-point play. Punter hit a jumper and erased Shields's triple with his own shot from downtown. LeDay and Neno Dimitrijevic hit a three-pointer apiece and combined for 12 points in a mammoth 0-20 run which Bolmaro capped with free throws to break the game open, 60-76, at the end of the third quarter.
Vesely hit another jumper early in the fourth quarter and soon added a layup that gave Barca hope at 64-76. LeDay scored down low and matched Anderson's triple with his own make from three-point land, restoring a 67-81 Milan margin. Vesely kept pacing Barca with a layup, yet Mirotic scored around the basket and made free throws to seal the outcome, 69-85, with 4 minutes remaining. Barca kept trying to change things but LeDay's three-point play rounded a near-perfect performance and allowed Milan to celebrate a well-deserved victory long before the final buzzer.