Dzanan Musa key as Real Madrid holds off Milan, 91-87

Dzanan Musa scored 27 points to guide Real Madrid to a 91-87 win against the visiting EA7 Emporio Armani Milan at WiZink Center on Thursday night. This victory improved Real to a 20-9 record, which means that it is on the brink of mathematically qualifying for the playoffs. Milan, which saw its six-game winning streak come to an end, had a chance to send the game to overtime, down 90-87 with 4.9 seconds to go, but Johannes Voigtmann stepped out of bounds after an inbound pass from Shabazz Napier. Guerschon Yabusele then went 1-for-2 from the line, effectively ending the game as a contest and dropping the Italian side to a 12-16 record.
Musa's 27 points were one shy of a career high, and he also had 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Walter Tavares amassed 17 points and 8 rebounds, while Yabusele and Mario Hezonja scored 12 apiece in the victory. Napier paced Milan with 17 points and 8 assists, and Nicolo Melli had 16 points and 7 rebounds. Stefano Tonut and Billy Baron netted 14 points apiece.
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Despite having a tough time containing Tavares, Milan took control early on. Napier was orchestrating Milan's offense, with Baron sinking a pair of triples and Melli doing the damage inside. A fastbreak layup from Tonut made it 10-18. Yabusele and Musa sparked Real's offense, scoring the first 8 points in a 12-0 run to take a 24-23 lead after 10 minutes.
Fabien Causeur hit back-to-back triples to extend it to 30-23, but Tonut made a three-pointer and Napier's return to the floor reignited Milan's offense. The two players fueled a 2-12 run that had the visitors back in front. However, led by Musa and with the defensive energy from Rudy Fernandez, Real scored the final 6 points of the quarter to take a 42-40 lead into the halftime break.
Melli opened the second half with a three-pointer, but Musa's triple helped the hosts to a 49-45 advantage. There were five lead changes in the early stages of the third quarter, before Baron and Napier gave the visitors a slim lead, and a pair of baskets from Brandon Davies made it 58-62. But Hezonja entered the game and got hot right away, stringing together 9 points, including a pair of triples, that put Real in front 67-66 going into the fourth quarter.
The two teams continued to trade blows, but after Tonut's triple set a 71-74 score, Real put together a 12-2 run, which included several trips to the free-throw line. Milan refused to go away, however. Melli and Davies scored inside, then Napier got a favorable roll on a triple with 55 seconds to go, tying it at 84-84. But, Sergio Rodriguez served Tavares for an easy dunk, before Real made a defensive stand and never relinquished its lead again.