Defense wins titles for Virtus Bologna

Defense wins titles for Virtus Bologna

During the press conference after the semifinal win against Brose Bamberg, coach Sasha Djordjevic referred to his approach as “defense win championships”. And it proved to be the truth since Iberostar Tenerife was massacred by the huge defensively effort of the Italian powerhouse. Let’s some simple facts of the game that supports this reality:

  • in the 1st quarter, Tenerife’s presence on Sportpaleis was reduced to only 8 points  (20-8)
  • at halftime, the Spaniards managed to have only 24 points on the board (38-24)
  • from the arc, Tenerife percentage was a nightmare: 5 from 37 (13.5%)
  • Virtus Bologna was superior on blocks made with 3-1 and had as well fewer turnovers than Iberostar Tenerife: 15-20.

Almost nobody realized that actually, Iberostar Tenerife scored more free-throws than Virtus Bologna (20-18) and had much more shots attempted (65) compared to Virtus (only 54). So, on a normal day, the Spanish team had to win easily, but they were not able to find a way to the basket. If we will take a look at the offensive rebounds chapter, we can see a lot of second opportunity to score for Tenerife: 24 offensive boards and only 11 for Virtus Bologna. This stats reflect, in fact, the horrible shooting percentage of the Spanish squad who grabbed rebounds in offense because they have missed a lot of shots. Virtus Bologna instead, they had not so much to rebound offensively because they scored much accurate.

Photo credit: championsleague.basketball

Gratian Cormos, info@brainbasketball.net

Defense wins titles for Virtus Bologna

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