Warriors-Wizards Preview

The good news for the Washington Wizards is that the Golden State Warriors experienced issues against lesser competition on the first two stops of their road trip.

The bad news: they won anyway.

The Warriors brushed aside some uncharacteristic stretches by extending some more telling trends over the weekend, and they will go for their eighth straight victory when they visit the nation's capital Wednesday night.

It's easy to focus on the concerns from the opening two games of Golden State's trip as it nearly blew a 24-point lead in Saturday's 108-105 win over lowly Philadelphia before scoring a season-low 18 points in the opening quarter of Sunday's 116-95 victory against New York.

Still, the Warriors improved to 44-4 to match the best mark in NBA history through 48 games.

Golden State finished with 68 assists on 89 made baskets and converted on 29 of 59 3-pointers between the two contests - extending streaks of at least 30 assists to seven games and at least 10 3-pointers to 10.

The last NBA team to record 30-plus assists seven games in a row was the 1993-94 Warriors.

"That's what we do," coach Steve Kerr said.

And they win. The Warriors are one game better than the pace set by Kerr's 1995-96 Chicago Bulls on the way to their all-time best 72-10 record.

"We're not really paying much attention to the record," Kerr said. "But we don't take winning for granted, that's for sure."

Kerr almost experienced his first loss on the sideline. The Warriors, 5-0 since his Jan. 22 return from a leave of absence due to complications from back surgery, needed a Harrison Barnes 3 with 0.2 seconds left to beat the league-worst 76ers. Things didn't completely return to normal until the second quarter at Madison Square Garden.

Golden State, which has won eight of nine in this series and five in a row at Washington, bounced back from a 20-18 first-quarter deficit by scoring 64 points over the next 24 minutes. Stephen Curry scored only 13 points, but Klay Thompson made 14 of 18 shots for 34 and Draymond Green had 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists to tie a franchise record with his ninth triple-double - matching Hall of Famer Tom Gola's total from the 1959-60 season.

Golden State has also held a rebounding advantage in each game of its winning streak, an area that led to the latest loss for Washington (21-25).

The Wizards suffered their sixth defeat in eight games Monday after getting outrebounded 53-27 in a 114-98 loss at Oklahoma City. The Thunder grabbed 14 offensive boards to Washington's two.

"When you're playing from behind and you're getting a team that's making shots and getting offensive rebounds when they're missing, it's tough to win," point guard John Wall said.

The Warriors make plenty of shots as they're tied with San Antonio for the best field-goal percentage in the league at 49.1 while shooting 42.8 percent from 3-point range, far ahead of the second-place Spurs (38.7). The Wizards, who have lost seven of nine at home, allow opponents to shoot a league-high 38.6 percent on 3s and 47.0 percent overall.

Washington will play without coach Randy Wittman for the second straight game after his brother's death last week, and assistant Don Newman will assume the head coaching duties. Wittman is expected to return for Friday's home contest against Philadelphia.