"Fans had the words stamped plenty legibly across the chests of their T-shirts, but it still took a little while for the message to be recognized by the Warriors courtside.

On a night the marketing department passed out giveaways with the slogan, "Not in our house," the Warriors embodied the sentiment in the second half. They started playing defense in the third quarter and staved off a Washington comeback attempt in the fourth to secure a 114-104 victory Sunday night at Oracle Arena.

The Warriors (32-42) were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs by Memphis' victory Sunday afternoon, meaning they won't play in the postseason for the 16th time in the past 17 seasons. Still, they simply couldn't lose to Washington (17-55), which has lost 10 of its past 11 games and has won only one road game all season.

In the second half, the Warriors finally got the message.

"We made a switch, a big switch," said coach Keith Smart, who had Dorell Wright defend point guard John Wall. "I didn't want to show it in the first half. I wanted to keep it close to the vest until the second half."

The Warriors were so good in their help-defense positions that it looked like they were trapping the ball-handler at times. They forced the Wizards into nine turnovers and a 28.3 shooting percentage in the second half."