Warriors unveil new dimension while rolling to victory against Wizards

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Credit the Washington Wizards for committing to perimeter defense to avoid being buried under an avalanche of 3-pointers by Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.

Credit the Warriors, though, for adjusting and then exploiting the rest of the floor.

Rather than throwing their customary knockout blows from deep Thursday night, the Warriors attacked from in close and came away with a 126-118 victory over at Capital One Arena in the nation’s capital.

“They were defending us a certain way, trying to take away the 3-point line for pretty much everybody,” Stephen Curry told reporters in Washington. “We only got up 20 attempts [from beyond the arc] and probably five of them were kind of forced shots, if you will.

“You have to take what the defense gives you certain nights, and I think for the most part we moved the ball early and got everybody established. When the lane starts opening up, you have to take advantage of it some nights.”

There was 6-foot-11, 270 pound center DeMarcus Cousins using his bulk to get to the rim or pass out of double teams in the post.

Or Kevin Durant weaving his way inside the arc and dropping in mid-range jumpers.

Or, more devastating, there was Curry slicing through the paint to score, find a cutter or kick out to an open teammate.

Add it all up, and the Warriors rolled up a season-high 70 points in the paint by exhibiting offensive versatility that bamboozled the Wizards.

"We wanted to take away a couple of their things and we did just an average job on some of our switches,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. “They're going to make some shots, but I thought we gave them too many straight-line drives and some of our switches were mistakes and they got layups.

“Seventy points in the paint -- that’s way too many.”

The Warriors shot 35 percent (7-of-20) from deep, but more than offset that by shooting 63.2 percent (43-of-68) inside the arc -- and 68.7 percent (35-of-51) in the paint.

Call it, if you will, the Boogie Effect. Cousins scored 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting. He made the only 3-pointer he took, but did most of his damage inside.

“It’s not something we’ve practiced a lot, so we kind of just threw it out there on the fly,” Cousins said. “We were successful in some moments, and then we kind of got on top of each other and it was a little sloppy. I’m sure that’s something we’ll work on going forward. There were some instances where it didn’t work.”

The Warriors are indeed in the early stages of their evolution with Cousins. His size and comprehensive skills in the post offer a dimension this group has not known, and the franchise hasn’t had since Wilt Chamberlain more than a half-century ago.

“We still have to figure out the right balance in terms of getting him the ball inside and keeping the flow going,” coach Steve Kerr said. “There was a stretch in the fourth quarter when we probably forced it a little too much.

“But you can see, when he gets down there it’s pretty tough to stop him. He had a couple plays where he sealed his guy and we threw the ball over the top and there was nothing anybody can do. It’s amazing that he’s on our team and that we have this new weapon to use.”

The Warriors of recent vintage have been identified mostly by their jump shots, by Curry and Thompson and Durant pouring in shots and crushing the spirit of opponents while lighting up the scoreboard.

They’ve been less known for their defense, which has been the bedrock of their championship seasons.

They weren’t known as a team that can take apart a defense every conceivable way, from 3-pointers, to mid-range jumpers and through bully ball on the block.

They are now.

So next time an opponent devotes itself to guarding the arc, the Warriors have two terrific options. They can pitch it to Durant and let him go to work in isolation, or they can lob it to Cousins and let him anchor an offense from the inside.

And if there’s an answer for those, well, there’s always that Curry-Thompson duo.

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