MIES (Switzerland) - Shark attacks in the Canary Islands are extremely rare, with fewer than one incident recorded every 15 years historically, but wow, did we see a shark attack on Wednesday night in Tenerife.
Trapani Shark might just be the most underrated team on the continent at this current juncture in time.
With nine wins and only one loss, they have the joint-best record in the Italian Lega Basket Serie A and after ending La Laguna Tenerife's 31-game win streak at home, they sit second in Group D of the Basketball Champions League, powered by Ameresco SUNEL.
That 31-game win streak, by the way, dated back to December 2021 and included Turkish giants Tofas Bursa and Karsiyaka taking four bites at the cherry and still unable to win on Txus Vidorreta's patch.
It does need to be said that Tenerife were without the most important piece of the puzzle with Marcelinho Huertas - still struggling with plantar fasciitis - and also coming off the back of an emotionally draining one-point loss to Real Madrid three days earlier.
However, they have had tough schedules and been without key players in the past, but always found ways to win.
So, full credit has to go to acting head coach Alex Latini and his Trapani Shark team for coming out on top on this occasion. They led this game for 32 of the 40 minutes and unquestionably deserved to win.
If we are staying with the shark attack metaphor, let's jump in and analyze the bite marks on the surfboard.
Stats
First of all, when we look through the data to see where this game was won and lost, if you blacked out the score of the game and just scanned the rest of the stats, you would be hard-pressed to pick out the winner.
The home team, Tenerife, actually came out on top in more categories than their Italian opponents.
However, the areas where Coach Latini's men did come out on top also turned out to be the most decisive when we watched the game back.
Trapani recorded 10 steals to Tenerife's 5, scored 12 fast break points whilst holding Tenerife to just 4, and also scored 19 points from turnovers, with Tenerife held to 12.
Trapani also pressured the Tenerife defense into sending them to the charity stripe for 28 free throws, whilst being disciplined enough to keep that number down to just 16 for the home team.
Film
The two things that really stood out tactically about this Trapani performance were their connectivity and effort levels on defense, and the relentless drive to force the tempo.
It's not often that the highlight plays of the night also tell the story of the game tactically, but in this case, our social media team was on fire throughout the game.
The play in that IG post above shows you the will that Trapani had to run from every missed Tenerife shot and points perfectly to advantage that Trapani enjoyed in terms of fast break points, but if we analyze the entire possession that led to that delicious dish served up at the end of that fluid fast break, we start to see exactly how Trapani won this game.
The video below starts with Tenerife on offense directly before taking the shot that triggered the break. Keep an eye out for the arrows on the screen; we'll explain them after.
At the start of that clip you see Tenerife's #31 Rokas Giedraitis setting a Ghost screen on the ball, and our first arrow appeared, showing you the indecision between the two Trapani defenders.
Both #5 Ryan Arcidiacono and #6 Riccardo Rossato stayed on the ball, leaving Giedraitis open on the slip.
The reaction from there is what tells the story of Trapani's defense in this game. They instantly communicated and reorganized as Rossato and #15 Adama Sanogo switched to cover Giedraitis and Giorgi Shermadini.
Rossato then fronted the big Georgian to force the lob, entry pass. When #1 J.D. Notae rotated out of the corner to protect the rim, watch the arrow on screen pointing at Arcidiacono.
He had both feet in the middle of the lane when the ball left Shermadini's hands but still made it out to contest the shot and force the miss.
The final arrow on the screen shows the team in white reacting to adversity in real time again. #10 Fabrizio Pugliatti and Sanogo crash into each other chasing the rebound, which resulted in Sanogo hitting the deck.
Instead of just accepting fate, Pugliatti recovered again from both feet in the paint to perfectly execute a fly-by closeout to what should have been a wide-open, corner three.
Trapani eventually secured the rebound and again outworked Tenerife down the court. When you hear coaches talking about needing multiple efforts to win games, this sequence is exactly what they mean.
The other positive stat for Trapani that really opened a window into their game plan to win this game was the number of steals they recorded.
10 steals is high, but not a number so high as to be of note on its own. But when you watch the game, you see that all of those steals came from reading the passing lanes and timing the move to intercept the pass.
It's no secret that Tenerife are the best passing team across the 10-year history of this competition. If they are allowed to dictate tempo and find their rhythm, they can and regularly do pass teams out of the gym.
Rossato had 5 steals reading the next pass from Tenerife, and when you watch the clip below of Notae making a steal, it starts to look like more than just a freak night of lucky reads and instead looks more like a product of players executing a plan.
What you saw in the video was Tenerife running their Shuffle action with a weakside back screen from #6 Bruno Fitipaldo for Giedraitis.
When Fitipaldo caught the ball at the top of the key, the video slowed down, and the arrow pointed to Notae in the weakside corner. He stunted to help on #35 Fran Guerra in the paint, just long enough to read the play, as Fitipaldo looked to make the pass to his man in the corner.
We slowed the clip down to show you how perfectly timed his stunt was with Fitipaldo jumping to pass the ball. This could have been a coincidence, but it looks much more like a detailed study on the tendencies of an opponent.
Notae was also disruptive to Tenerfe's rhythm with his willingness to take and ability to hit early offense three-balls, especially early in the game.
His 24 points on 50 percent shooting won't be the most impressive of the season but it might have been one of the most impactful performances we see this season.
And finally, we had back to our social media team for our final key possession. The clip in the post below has you enjoying the perfect triangles created by Trapani's spacing and ball movement...
But again, we want to take you back to the start of the entire sequence.
Before we do that, it's also worth noting the context here. After holding double-digit leads, Tenerife had cut the lead to low single-digits late in the fourth quarter.
In the past, these have been the moments when teams buckle under the pressure, and Vidorreta's team closes the game out comfortably.
But not this time and not this Trapani team.
Again, we watched the same Shuffle action for Tenerife at the start of the clip. Only this time, Trapani had adjusted and were switching.
The first arrow showed Rossato switching the back screen, then fronting the post to deny the entry pass. Tenerife were forced into second and third options, eventually leading to a switched ball screen and Arcidiacono playing elite, on-ball defense to contain, then Wall-up the drive.
In the offense, directly after we saw the next adjustment from Trapani.
They didn't force the tempo and run the break. Instead, they opted for a slower, set offense to eat the clock and break the tempo for Tenerife, trying to increase the number of possessions chasing the game.
On the pick-and-roll, Notae read the trap and instead of forcing the pass to the short roll, he faked the pass to make the pass open up to Arcidiacono.
What we hopefully showed you with those three videos is that Trapani demonstrated the composure and ability to dictate different game tempos against the masters of dictating tempo, and they did it in their house.
This was a very tactically astute display from the Italian team with multiple players making high IQ plays throughout.
They take on Tofas Bursa on December 16 to decide who holds second place and the home advantage in the Play-Ins.
That isn't a game you want to miss.