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Magical Pixels, Wizards vs. Warriors: Washington wins, because why not?

Henry Jekyll must have been a Wizards fan.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

I'm not even going to pretend to be surprised anymore by these Washington Wizards. Lose to the lowly Celtics at home before beating the good Suns on the road, then lose to the lowly Jazz on the road before beating the excellent Warriors on the road. Go figure. Oh, and we're back at .500 again, with a road matchup tonight against the very good Clippers. Joy.

The Wizards beat the Warriors, 88-85, with some stifling defense last night. Washington only shot 37.8 percent, but the Warriors were a smidge worse at 37.5 percent shooting. The Wizards did hit 10 of 22 threes, whereas the Warriors shot only 7-of-23 from deep. The boards were key, as Washington outrebounded Golden State 56-to-47, helping the Wizards attempt 10 more shots than the Warriors, who made it to the line eight more times than the Wiz.

Bradley Beal had Washington's best stat line with 20 points to go with seven rebounds and four assists, and he carried the offense early in the fourth quarter by hitting a few huge threes. But it was Trevor Ariza (nine points, 11 rebounds) and John Wall (15 points, eight rebounds, five assists, five turnovers) who, despite middling stats, carried the team to victory, and they did it with defense. Wall harassed Stephen Curry all night, helping "hold" him to an inefficient 23 points, while Ariza's immaculate defense in the game's waning seconds forced Curry into a contested, left-handed shot put that didn't come close to swishing through the net.

I'd say let's see if the Wizards can do it again tonight against the Clippers, but we know better by now, don't we? Stop worrying, and just enjoy the show.

KEY LINKS

Road team recaps: BF StoryStreamWashington PostAP | CSN Washington (recapsidebar) | Daily DimeTruth About ItWiz of AwesHoop DistrictTed's TakeWizards.comMonumental NetworkDaily Wizdom

Home team recaps: Golden State of Mind | San Fransisco Chronicle (gamersidebar) | San Jose Mercury NewsWarriors WorldBay Area News GroupBay Sports NetSF BayBlue Man HoopGolden Gate Sports

Game highlights

Postgame interviews: Randy WittmanJohn WallBradley BealTrevor ArizaNene

KEY STATS

32.5 - The Splash Bros. combined shooting percentage against the Wizards. Steph Curry shot 8-of-23, while and Klay Thompson went 5-of-17.

3 - After last night, the number of times the Warriors have been held to less than 40 percent shooting. They shot 37.5 percent against the Wizards.

TWEETS OF THE NIGHT

VIDEO/GIF OF THE NIGHT

Given the defense the Wizards played against the Warriors, it was fitting the game began like this...

and ended like this.

GAMETHREAD COMMENT OF THE NIGHT

GAMETHREAD ROLLCALL

# Commenter # Comments
1 qthaballa 143
2 JimmyWall 90
3 DCrez 76
4 richkam14 59
5 Perm 55
6 wad0cash 51
7 gregjohnson1229 47
8 Singhgidda 45
9 KurisuDevil 44
10 FTT 38
11 tw10 37
12 elliotlevy2 37
13 imperialme 37
14 LRJ 34
15 dc_chilling 33
16 Bryan1976 32
17 xxrdotxx 32
18 Baird15 30
19 Durant 29
20 BackScreenLob 27
21 17squall 27
22 HailSkinz 27
23 PolishHammer 20
24 KINGWIZ86 20
25 LeHalfrican 20
26 Rice2012 19
27 hotplate 15
28 Nickdoggmoneycash 15
29 freshcat 15
30 spotless 15
31 DCnhokies 14
32 Mandark 14
33 Craig_ 14
34 DCKRS 13
35 Chillinois 12
36 Born of Osiris 11
37 Rook6980 10
38 dave21110 8
39 DMV Cock 8
40 Jormond Wall 8
41 returnofswagger 7
42 ATrueNigerian 7
43 DCON88 7
44 wizncards 7
45 Hands11 6
46 jazzy1 6
47 terpsDC 6
48 knight13951 5
49 rayallenisaballer 5
50 the new Bradfather 4
51 WindyRindy 4
52 Gators2015_BB3 3
53 melody1951 3
54 The Hoops Guru 3
55 thewiz06 3
56 swaggyP 3
57 rsilbe 3
58 Manimal Smith 3
59 Krobify 3
60 oakhillsteeze 2
61 wuds100 2
62 rhythmic 2
63 WinstonCharles 2
64 tarheel723 2
65 WizKid27 2
66 RCpige 2
67 John Wall Stan 2
68 henrylau11 2
69 Shark Fin Soup 1
70 Moonwalk Jenkins 1
71 DCUniverse 1
72 Shawn-Paul Muth 1
73 WASwizardsfan671 1
74 VBfan 1
75 Croftonpost 1