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Not everyone is convinced that the Golden State Warriors, even with a clean bill of health, are real contenders in the Western conference, but their winning streak reaching 9 games might be a positive hint, this time led by Klay Thompson with some impressive shooting and David Lee with his usual offensive hustle to grant them a 112-96 victory over the Washington Wizards.

Thompson usually takes a step back which allows Stephen Curry to grab the spotlight. However, Thompson took center stage, leading the Warriors with 26 points on 6-of-9 from beyond the arc while Curry himself was on a rough shooting night, finishing with only 5-of-17 from the field. He did add 10 assists to go with his 14 points, so his inefficient shooting night was forgiven.

Someone who did have a big game was David Lee with another double double, scoring 21 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. He scored early to help open up the outside for Thompson and the others (Warriors shot 9-of-22 from beyond the arc), but his main contribution came in the third quarter (34-15 for the Warriors), scoring 12 points and having no problem with anyone the Wizards used to try and subdue him.

Andre Iguodala isn’t putting up big numbers since his return, but it’s easy to see just how much he adds to them even if it doesn’t show up in the box scores. Iguodala scored 9 points, but was at his most useful in the second half after switching to guard Bradley Beal. Beal was quite a problem in the first half, going 4-for-6 in the first quarter. The rest of the night, and especially when Iguodala was guarding him? He was 0-for-9, finishing the game scoring only 9 points in 25 minutes.

It puts into perspective the history of this franchise, and how far in a short period we’ve been able to turn it around with great moves by ownership, by management, spectacular players that have bought in. And now the thing is sustaining it.

A lot of the talk after the game went to Curry combining with Andrew Bogut. Curry, intentionally or not, let the ball fly and hit the glass before the center scooped it and dunked with perfect timing.

I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know if he was shooting or throwing a lob, but I kind of knew it was a bad shot if it was a shot. I just tried to get where the ball was coming.

Curry made it seem like it was all planned, although there’s a good chance it wasn’t.

I made a decision to pick my dribble up and look for Bogut. Whoever was guarding him made a decision to stay with him, and my only option was to stick my hand out at the last second to redirect it. Thankfully it hit the right spot on the backboard, and Bogue made a quick reaction to go up. We’ve never done that before, so it was nice that it worked out.

The Warriors are now 23-13, winning nine consecutive games for the first time since a 10-game run from Dec. 6-23, 1975. They also had a nine-game regular season winning streak that overlapped the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons.

Images: Source