A week after facing each other in the 2015 All-Star Game, Stephen Curry and John Wall will take it a little bit more seriously on Wednesday night when the Wizards host the league-leading Golden State Warriors at Verizon Centre arena in Washington.
A number of household names with terrific three-point shooting and rebounding ability are expected to star on the Warriors mission to the USA capital city.
Even though Curry was sidelined with a right foot injury in Sunday’s 104-98 defeat at Indiana, the Golden State Warriors leading scorer, who averages 23.6 points, feels he will be able to go on Tuesday.
The match up will also bring an intriguing battle in the paint, involving two of the best big men in the league. Warriors centre Andrew Bogut, who is averaging 8.3 boards per contest, and Washington’s Marcin Gortat who captures 8.1 rebounds per game, are set to play.
The Wizards (33-22) are coming off a 106-89 loss to Detroit, making Wednesday morning’s match-up a task of bouncing-back and moving on.
This is the first regular-season meeting between the two. The Warriors (43-10) will seek their eighth victory in the last ten games, while Wall and co. will try to rebound from a poor run and win their third game in the last ten.
As a result of their 110.3 points per game – the league’s highest scoring average so far – the Warriors are favourites in the matchup.
But Warriors first-year head coach Steve Kerr is not resting on his laurels.
“They are a good team. I know they have been in a little bit of a struggle lately, which will probably make this even more difficult for us because they are going to be hungry and ready to go. But like everybody in this league, they are going through their own adversity right now. We know we are going to get their best effort,” Kerr said.
Washington’s 20-9 home record could be encouraging, but a lot more needs to be done to stop the Warriors duo of Curry and Klay Thompson, who continue to hurt their opponents from beyond the three-point line.
“That’s going to be our focus,” said Wizards forward Paul Pierce.
“Last three games we gave up a number of threes, and that was pretty much the difference in the game.”
Averaging 99 points per game seems good, but it also starts at the defensive end.
Pierce continued: “We haven’t been shooting the three very well. The game starts with our defense, whether it is in the paint or the three-point line. If we don’t defend, we don’t have any chance to win the ball game.”
“Sometimes we go through offensive flows that affect our defense. We come down, we don’t score three or four in a row and it can’t be that way.”
Wizards’ Bradley Beal is expected to miss his sixth straight game due to an injured right leg.
The Wizards desperately need Wall to transform his team-high 17.3 points per game into wins in order to keep the team in the race for a playoff place in the Eastern Conference.
