TENERIFE (Spain) - The Santiago Martin Arena is surely the toughest place to go on the road in the Basketball Champions League.
Before Game 1 of the Quarter-Finals between La Laguna Tenerife and Bertram Derthona Basket on Wednesday night, Tenerife had won 28 on the spin, including all seven that were Quarter-Finals games.
Now we can make that 29 after Tenerife snuck through the backdoor with a 93-89 overtime win against Derthona, but it was far from the usual dominance we see from Txus Vidorreta's team.
To start the game, it looked like business as usual for Tenerife. They blasted off to 13-0 lead and then pushed it even further to get their noses 15 points in front when they went up 19-4.
Such was their dominance in the first quarter; they ended it with a Net Rating of +70, thanks to an Offensive Rating of 133 whilst holding Derthona to just 63 points per 100 possessions.
They shot 59 percent from the field in the first 10 minutes, had zero turnovers, and looked utterly dominant.
The second quarter looked like it was going to be more of the same, and we would start to see heavy rotation off Txus Vidorreta's bench... Then this happened:
Ismael Kamagate sparked a 14-2 Derthona run with that lob dunk, including another dunk over the top of Shermadini halfway through the second quarter.
The Italians were equally as dominant in the second stanza as their opponents were in the first.
They had a Net Rating of 61.7 in that quarter, thanks mostly to a monstrous Offensive Rating of 151 points scored per 100 possessions, but also in part due to forcing a turnover on 20 percent of Tenerife's possessions in the period.
From that point onwards, it was game on.
The Italians eventually took their first lead at 66-65 with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter. When their lead extended to 74-68 with three minutes on the clock, it looked like we might have the shock of the season on our hands.
In the end, it still wasn't enough, and Tenerife proved that, like a wounded animal, even when they are vulnerable, they are still dangerous and found a way to win.
But how did it happen? Let's dive in and have a look.
#1 Nothing Works Against Tenerife
After the first nine points were rattled off by Tenerife, with Derthona playing man-to-man defense and utilizing a pretty conservative defensive scheme designed to contain more than disrupt, Walter De Raffaele used a break in play from an official review to set his team up in a 3-2 zone.
We knew that the wily Italian coach would be ready with a few tricks up his sleeve, but there really is no stopping Tenerife when the machine is humming. Huertas and the gang noticed the zone instantly and ran this clinical set to dissect it.
When you watch that clip, notice that Giorgi Shermadini and Aaron Doornekamp set outside Flare Screens for David Kramer and Thomas Scrubb to threaten the corners with their shooting.
This drew both of the low men in Derthona's zone out of the paint and opened the middle of the floor for Doornekamp to find Shermadini with an easy dish for an uncontested dunk.
Kramer, Kostadinov, and Doornekamp made 100 percent of their field goals from an assist, whilst Abromaitis and Shermadini made 83.3 and 71.4 percent of theirs from an assist.
There really isn't a better offensive team in Europe when it comes to solving tactical challenges as a team.
Sometimes, it really does feel like no matter what you throw at them, they have the answer already waiting for you.
#2 Somethings Worked Against Tenerife
Nobody goes to Tenerife and forces them to make a high volume of turnovers at home, but Derthona did.
Nobody ups the aggression in the pick-and-roll and rushes Marcelinho Huertas into mistakes, but Derthona did.
Even after Derthona forced 15 Tenerife turnovers in this game, the black and yellows still only average 10.9 per game, comfortably the lowest in the BCL this season.
They forced eight of those turnovers from the usually infallible Brazilian Point God, Huertas. If you watch the video below, you can see that most of the credit belongs to Kamagate and Paul Biligha.
Derthona's bigs were excellent in aggressive pick-and-roll coverages, hedging out and using their length to knock the ball loose or standing tall and blocking out the light to prevent Huertas from seeing the passing lanes.
The rotations on the back side of Derthona's defense to steal passes to rolling bigs were also excellent.
We saw this disruptive defense all the way through the second half and up to the very last possession of regulation.
With 12.6 seconds left in the game and the score tied, Vidorreta called a timeout and drew up a play to win the game. He said in the post-game press conference that they had fouled the previous possession to send Derthona to the line, even though they were up two points at the time.
Such was the confidence in his team's ability to execute a final play. Vidorreta was prepared to risk overtime in order to avoid the chances of Derthona making a three-pointer to take the lead.
This was how the play unfolded:
Derthona started defensively with Justin Gorham pre-switched onto Huertas.
They did this knowing that with Biligha on Shermadini and Weems on Abromaitis, they would have the ability to switch the pick-and-roll no matter who Tenerife used to set the ball screen.
It worked to perfection as first Weems switched aggressively onto Huertas and poked the ball away to disrupt the timing of the play, then Biligha switched the second ball screen and deflected the pass to Shermadini rolling to the rim.
#3 Nothing Works Against Tenerife
The problem with finding a tactical solution to Tenerife is that there are no tactical solutions to Tenerife.
If you play conservatively in the pick-and-roll with low or drop coverages, Huertas kills you with runners and pull ups - the Brazillian had a quiet 26 points in this game, with only one made three-pointer.
If you play aggressively and attempt to hedge or trap, you might get steals, but you open yourself up to passes into the roll man or kick out three-pointers when you rotate off the perimeter to protect the middle.
As you can see from the post above on our official social media accounts, it's never going to end well if you consistently have to leave Tim Abromaitis open in the corner.
To take the point further, Abromaitis had 11 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. All 11 of them came from an open shot in the left corner or the final two points from a dunk attacking the closeout - also out of the left corner.
The good news for Derthona is the next game is at home, and they have been excellent at home in the BCL. Ten of their eleven home games have been wins, including seven of the last eight.
To add to that, Tenerife have lost three of their last four road games in the Quarter-Finals. The schedule looks pretty challenging for Tenerife as well, as they face Real Madrid at home on Sunday, before making the long journey to Tortona.
The bad news is that Derthona had a real chance to steal this one, and they couldn't get over the line.
Despite playing as well as they possibly could have, and also Tenerife having an off night in many respects, they couldn't quite stop the Tenerife train from rolling on.
Can they realistically expect to force as many Tenerife turnovers in Game 2? Even though they are at home, it will still be a tall task.
They can, however, expect the same performance levels from themselves, and they should even be healthier and fresher with the likes of Tommy Kuhse in a better place to make a bigger contribution.
One thing we know for certain is that it will be a game you don't want to miss.
April 16, PalaFerraris, mark it on the calendar. You don't want to miss it!