After taking down the reigning NBA champions in impressive fashion and beating the Atlanta Hawks through an Andre Iguodala buzzer-beater, the Golden State Warriors will attempt to continue their demolition job of the Eastern Conference Sunday evening. The Dubs are a perfect 4-0 on their road trip and are on an eight-game winning streak. #FullSquad has all of a sudden become the hottest hashtag on Twitter and Golden State is the hottest team in the NBA. The Washington Wizards are up next.
Keys to the game
Off Eff: Warriors: 103.4 (12th) Wizards: 100.9 (21st)
Def Eff: Warriors 98.5 (4th) Wizards: 103.1 (16th)
Pace: Warriors: 99.3 (3rd) Wizards: 95.1 (23rd)
Limit transition opportunities
The Washington Wizards are one of the best running teams in the NBA. They rank second in the league in points per play in transition plays and it makes up a huge part of their offense. John Wall is completely unstoppable when he is allowed to accelerate in the fastbreak and it will be as important as ever to limit that. As it so happens, the Warriors recently played against the team that ranks first in transition in Miami Heat, and the champs scored on 10 of their 14 shots in transition. Golden State will need to do a better job on Sunday.
Shut down the backcourt
The Wizards rely heavily on the production of John Wall and Bradley Beal, although the frontcourt can produce surprisingly well sometimes. Other than being a team that looks to run, the Wizards love running Beal off multiple screens to set him up for spot-up opportunities. Ande Iguodala and Klay Thompson generally do a good job chasing guys over screens and they’ll certainly need to do that against Washington.
Injuries
Wizards
Glen Rice Jr. (Out)
Al Harrington (Out)
Warriors
Festus Ezeli (Out)
Jermaine O’Neal (Out)
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