Wizards vs. Warriors preview: Washington continues West Coast trip against the NBA's best

The Wizards head to the not so friendly confines of Oracle Arena looking to take down the Golden State Warriors who haven't lost at home since January 27th, 2015.

The last time these two teams played, John Wall had an outstanding game scoring 41 points (on 17-25 shooting) to go along with 10 assists. Unfortunately, Wall's game was overshadowed by Stephen Curry who scored 51 points and shot 11-15 from three-point range.

The Warriors are 9-1 in their last 10 games with a record of 66-7; 51 games better than the Lakers team the Wizards beat on Sunday night. The Warriors are just seven wins away from setting the record for most wins in a regular season.

Bottom line is, if the Wizards are going to sneak out with a win, they'll need their best performance of the season as well as a little help from the Warriors.

Game Info

When: March 29 @ 10:30 PM EST.

Where: Oracle Arena

TV: TNT (no local coverage for tonight's game)

Radio: 99.1 WNEW

Injury Report

Alan Anderson, Bradley Beal and Markieff Morris are game-time decisions for the Wizards.

Festus Ezeli, Kevon Looney and Andre Iguodala are out; and Brandon Rush will be a game-time decision for the Warriors.

Keys to the game

The Wizards must slow down Stephen Curry: The soon to be anointed, back-to-back MVP is averaging 30 points per night. John Wall will have the task of guarding Curry and the Wizards will need his best defensive performance of the season if they are going to win this one. This isn't only on John Wall though. The bigs need to help Wall out in the pick-and-roll game as that's how Curry scored a bulk of his threes the last time these teams met. The Wizards will also have to stop the Warriors transition offense from getting easy looks if they want to have any shot of winning this game.

An unlikely player (or two) must step up for the Wizards: Porter, Morris, Dudley, Sessions, take your pick. Someone is going to have to step up for this team and have a monster game if the Wizards are going to pull the upset. Even though John Wall scored 41 points last time these teams met, the Wizards still lost by 13, 134-121. Wall can do it himself against the Lakers, 76ers, etc. but this is a whole different animal. If the Wizards don't have at least two 20-point scorers outside of Wall, I don't think they can come close to winning this game.

But hey... it's sports and crazy things happen right?

Most Likely Wizards Killer: Leandro Barbosa

Many thought Barbosa's career was over when the Wizards acquired him in the deal that sent Jordan Crawford to Boston. He had torn his ACL earlier that season with Boston and he had struggled to find a spot where he fit outside of the Seven Seconds or Less system in Phoenix. Remarkably, he's found a new home in Golden State where he's wreaking havoc again off the bench. If Washington's help defense isn't on-point, he could have a big night going up against Ramon Sessions and Marcus Thornton.