Lenovo Tenerife v SIG Strasbourg - a closer look

NIZHNY NOVGOROD (Russia) - The third Quarter-Final of this season's Basketball Champions League sees the classic tale of Cinderella v the favorite. In what might also be the most unpredictable match up out of all the Quarter-Finals, we see BCL royalty in Lenovo Tenerife, take on another long term stalwart of the competition in SIG Strasbourg.

Let's take a closer look at their journey's thus far and how they might play.

Lenovo Tenerife

Effective Field Goal Shooting: 59% (First)

Turnover Percentage: 16.1% (Sixth)

Offensive Rebound Percentage: 24.6% (Fifth)

Free Throw Ratio: 22.9% (Third)

Offensive Rating: 122.2 points per 100 possessions (First)

Defensive Rating: 110 points per 100 possessions (Seventh)

The rankings above next to each key stat are amongst all of the Final 8 competitors. As we have come to expect, Lenovo Tenerife have been dominant statistically this season. Their Offensive Rating of 122.2 points per 100 possessions is a new record at this stage of the season and the fact that they have shot at a league-best Effective Field Goal Percentage of 59%. But before we go further let's jump into the data story of their season.

On the tab marked "Pace" we can see that as is customary Tenerife are a low possessions team. This doesn't mean they don't run the floor or move players and the ball quickly. This is more a reflection of their patience to get the right shot and willingness to run the shot clock down if they need to wait to find it. What is possibly of interest was the two highest pace or highest possession games of the season for Tenerife were against Hereda San Pablo Burgos on Play-Off Gameday 2 and 6. They split those games with their Spanish rivals but we can see that despite Tenerife taking the overall head to head, Joan Penarroya's squad are the only club that has been able to make a real impact on dictating pace against Txus Vidorreta and this Tenerife squad.

if we head over to the "Ratings" tab and filter for the games that Tenerife have won we can see a point that is maybe counter to the narrative when it comes to efficiency ratings. Despite the fact that this is possibly the most efficient offensive season we have seen in the BCL, it is actually their best defensive performances that have been consistent with the games they have won. The home win against Burgos on the final game of the season was the best of them. They held Burgos to just 81.1 points per 100 possessions.

One stat that has always been another important indicator for Tenerife has been turnovers. With any team that is focused on patiently moving the ball you see more passes in each possession and as a result, more opportunities to turn the ball over. If we look on the tab marked "Offensive Rebounds & Turnovers", we can see a very encouraging stat line with respect Tenerife's chances in Russia. Usually teams are more prone to turnovers and less aggressive on the glass when they are away from their homecourt. However, if we filter for road games this season, we can see that there is no major pattern in terms of Offensive Rebound Percentage, if anything they have trended up as the season has progressed. And maybe even more importantly, they have clearly turned the ball over less when they have been playing on the road. The best performance coming on the road to Igokea on the first game of the Round of 16.

As we can see from Tenerife's top-ranked shooting efficiency, this team is elite when it comes to generating the shots they want. If we look at their shot map below, there are four very clear hot spots when it comes to the shots this team wants to take; they shoot 73.6 percent at the rim, 50 percent from the right corner, 46.7 percent from the right wing, and 42.8 percent from the left corner. In comparison to those numbers, only Burgos shoot a higher percentage at the rim, and Nizhny Novgorod and Pinar Karsiyaka are the only teams more efficient from the right corner.

How they might play

 Txus Vidorreta became the first coach to win 50 games in the BCL this season and is a true giant of coaching in this competition. We know he is a master of the tactical side of the game so it makes sense to start out showing you a play named after the club. Txus is as good as it gets when it comes to drawing up plays after a timeout, especially from the sideline. The play in the clip below is what Tenerife call "Canarias". They have so many different tweaks they can run out of it, but predominantly we will see them use it to get the likes of Huertas and Fitipaldo into a ball screen action on the slot.

Another set we are very likely to see is their staggered screen away from the ball for the shooting guard. They usually use this to enter the action and then run different options from there. The clip in the play below is classic Tenerife, a blur of yellow and black player movements with Sasu Salin eventually getting open for a shot after looping back round over the third screen in a matter of seconds. Watch how he also fakes to screen down on the weakside before coming off the final screen. Plays like this are what makes Tenerife so difficult to prepare for. It's also the kind of play that has helped them shoot 42 percent from behind the arc this season.

Here is the same entry again but this time for Huertas to get into a two-man game with Shermadini. This combination is the real engine of the Tenerife offensive machine. 

And finally, we have to talk about the way they activate Shermadini. When you have possibly the best player in the league as your center, it makes sense to get him the ball as early and often as possible. The play below serves to do exactly that. They start with a "Drag" screen from the Power Forward but at the same time, they also run a "Flex" screen across the lane for Shermadini, exactly at the same time as his defender would be preoccupied with being in a help position for the ball screen. 

 

SIG Strasbourg

Effective Field Goal Shooting: 54% (Fourth)

Turnover Percentage: 16.2% (Seventh)

Offensive Rebound Percentage: 20.6% (Eighth)

Free Throw Ratio: 28% (First)

Offensive Rating: 113.1 points per 100 possessions (Seventh)

Defensive Rating: 111.6 points per 100 possessions (Eighth)

Defensive Rating: 111.6 points per 100 possessions (Eighth)

The start of the 2020-21 season saw a major culture shift and changing of the guard at SIG Strasbourg. Long-time head coach Vincent Collet stepped away from the club after 9 years at the helm. Incoming was his assistant coach Lassi Tuovi from Finland. It was a bold move from the club to replace one of Europe’s most experienced coaches with the relatively untested Fin. The outcome has surely been better than anyone outside the club itself could have expected.

He has set this team up perfectly to succeed in the underdog or “Cinderella story” role. When your team is unlikely to shoot the highest percentages and you don’t perhaps have the resources to chase expensive big men to generate a high volume of shots at the rim, you need to find ways to make every possession count. Strasbourg’s stats this season reflect that plan perfectly. They lead all teams at the Final 8 for Offensive Rebound Percentage, pulling down 31.2 percent of their own misses and generating vital second chance opportunities. They are also a remarkably low turnover team, with a Turnover Percentage of 13.2 percent, good for second amongst Final 8 teams.

If we look at their data story we can see that this is a team that likes to run. With 13.3 fastbreak points per game they are +5 on their opponents when it comes to scoring on the run. If we filter their Pace tab for wins, we can see that a lot of their wins have been games when they have played with more possessions. We can also see that the Gameday 5 win over VEF Riga was the highest possession game of the season but this was also an overtime game.

SIG started the Play-Offs as brutally as they could possibly have done. They lost the first three games and looked almost dead and buried. But in  a true SIG Strasbourg, max-drama fashion, they went on to win the final three and reach the Final 8 on the last gameday of the Play-Offs. If we look at their Ratings tab we can see that it was an offensive improvement that saw them through. Their final three games were clearly their most efficient offensive performances of the season. And perhaps a sign of a good omen being that the best of the bunch was the road win in Nizhny. Perfect timing it would seem.

Finally, if we slide over to the Shooting tab, we can see that those offensive improvements were powered by their most efficient shooting performances of the season as well. Again, the best of the bunch being the road win in Nizhny. Does it seem they like the rims here or maybe the drop in temperature of Nizhny's cold home floor? Who knows, who cares? Lassi Tuovi and SIG certainly won't if they can replicate the same type of shooting performance against Tenerife.

If we look at the sweet spots on the floor for this SIG Strasbourg team, we can see three clear zones; they shoot 70.2 percent at the rim, 50.6 percent in the paint, and 46.1 percent from the right corner. In terms of volume, the painted area and directly at the rim are not only two of their most efficient shooting areas but also two of their most used. Strasbourg attempted 32 percent of all their field goals in the paint and 13.8 percent of them directly at the rim.

 

How they might play

Whilst this SIG team loves to run, that isn't to say they aren't able to play in the halfcourt. The video below is several clips of what looks like their "Motion" offense. This is built around patient ball reversals with off ball screens on either side of the floor until they force a defensive mistake or find a matchup they like for the likes of Colson, Jeffersion, Bohacik and Lansdowne.

Another common action we will see is starts with a similar entry to the "Point" series from the old Princeton offense. They enter the ball to a forward lifting from the elbow and play from there with off ball screens.

We mentioned that Txus is a master of the sideline out of bounds plays but Lassi Tuovi is no slouch himself when it comes to scribbling one up on the tactics board. We saw him draw up a play for Bonzie Colson to send the game to OT against VEF Riga but he's been doing it all season. The play below was against Rytas and set out in a similar set to Tenerife's "Drag Flex" that we showed you for Shermadini but the twist comes when Jefferson sets another "Rip" screen after the screen for Colson. The outcome is a wide open 3-ball in one of his sweet spots. In the words of Hannibal from the A-Team "I love it when a plan comes together".

 

The Match-Up

For Tenerife, their biggest advantages are experience and size. We already mentioned that in Shermadini they have the best offensive big man in the BCL and they will surely be looking to exploit that. So often this season we have seen crazy stat lines with the big Georgian dropping 20 points in 20 minutes. SIG will need to find a way to stop him and it will most likely be a collective effort. The challenge with that is that if they double him down low, he's an excellent passer and you are leaving the likes of Sasu Salin open. The question for Tenerife will be about attacking switches, as surely we will see SIG try to break their passing rhythm with switches and also who takes the last shot if they need to create their own on the perimeter.

For SIG it surely has to be a huge game from their own MVP candidate in Bonzie Colson. The American is possibly the most gifted overall scorer in the BCL this season and we have also seen on multiple occasions that he is a man for the big occasion in the clutch, late-game situations. Will Tenerife look to guard him with Cavanaugh and Doornekamp or go with a smaller player like Sasu Salin who is an extremely underrated defender. On paper, Colson will like his chances against all of those matchups. Then it will possibly come down to depth. Tenerife lead the league in bench scoring and their rotation goes deeper than any squad in Russia. SIG have got excellent bench production from the likes of Lansdowne all season. They will likely need another huge game from him again.