John Wall attacks the basket against Spencer Hawes on Friday. Wall finished with 10 points, 11 assists and helped hound L.A.’s Chris Paul into a game-high six turnovers. (Geoff Burke/Usa Today Sports)

Washington Wizards forward Paul Pierce nodded his head walking down the Verizon Center tunnel Friday night, a satisfied look on his face after celebrating on the court with some good-natured trash talk directed at Doc Rivers, his former coach on the opposing bench.

He seemed to realize there was something more to Washington’s wire-to-wire 104-96 win over the Los Angeles Clippers at Verizon Center. The Wizards had imposed their will, cooling down one of the NBA’s hottest teams with brute physicality and a dynamic back court that has suddenly become a force on both ends of the floor.

“We gave them a taste of that East Coast basketball tonight,” Pierce said.

Should Washington eventually emerge as one of the NBA’s elite teams this season, there will be far more important games than this one. But this victory, over a Western Conference power that entered riding a nine-game winning streak, may well be the contest where this team discovered just how good it could become.

The Wizards won for the 11th time in 13 games at Verizon Center, their best start at home in franchise history, and earned several standing ovations from the crowd of 17,437. They have now won seven of their past eight.

John Wall and the Wizards improve to 16-6 — tied for second place in the Eastern Conference, 1/2 game behind the 17-6 Raptors. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)

Guard Bradley Beal, two days removed from a game-winning lay-in at the buzzer to beat the Orlando Magic, had a season-high 29 points, and center Marcin Gortat added 18 as all five Washington starters finished in double figures. The Wizards had twice as many assists (28) as turnovers (14).

Point guard John Wall collected his fourth straight double-double with 10 points and 11 assists, and his defense on the Clippers’ Chris Paul proved crucial. Paul had a team-high 19 points and six assists but also committed a season-high six turnovers.

Washington (16-6) held Los Angeles, which entered the contest as the NBA’s third-highest scoring team, to 42.7 percent shooting. And each time the Clippers threatened to turn Friday into a tight finish, the Wizards had an answer, particularly on the defensive end.

“When we keep teams under 100 points, it seems like we can’t lose that way,” said Wall, who had never beaten the Clippers with both Paul and forward Blake Griffin healthy.

Rivers compared the game to a boxing match, one in which Washington dictated all the terms. Los Angeles had just three fast-break points, and its usual array of highlight reel lobs were replaced by a bevy of turnovers and clanked shots.

Los Angeles (16-6) never cut its deficit below eight points in the second half, and the pace played right into Washington’s strengths.

“We fought their fight, or at least tried to, and usually you lose when you try to, in boxing, fight someone else’s fight,” Rivers said.

Though this was just another mid-December game on the NBA calendar, there was a sense amongst the Wizards entering Friday that this matchup against one of the Western Conference’s powerhouses would be a chance to prove their hot start was not a fluke. Before Friday, Washington owned just one win over a team currently above .500.

More fuel could be found by looking back to last year, when the Clippers came to Verizon Center — almost a year ago to the day — and humbled Washington in a 113-97 victory, a game in which Paul outdueled Wall with 34 points. Wall countered with 28 points, but his performance proved to be more complete this time around.

“I know this kid long enough to tell you that he was waiting for this game,” Gortat said of Wall. “He wanted to win this game, and this is a huge improvement from John from the Day One. It wasn’t about who was going to score more points. Who’s going to lead the team to win the game?”

The Wizards came out blazing in the first quarter, taking a 22-11 lead courtesy of a 10-2 run that Wall capped with a three-pointer in which he held the follow-through for effect and pounded his chest in celebration.

Los Angeles, meanwhile, couldn’t find a sustained rhythm with Washington pushing around Clippers big men Griffin (14 points) and DeAndre Jordan inside. But Paul began to assert himself, connecting on his first shot with just under seven minutes remaining before halftime, part of an 11-2 spurt that, momentarily, got the Clippers back into the game.

Wall, though, ensured Washington finished the first half with a flourish, taking advantage of four Los Angeles turnovers over the final 1 minute 36 seconds of the second quarter. The sequence included three-pointers by Pierce, Beal and Wall, a Wall block of Jordan and Paul’s fourth giveaway of the half, forced by Wall’s on ball defense.

When it was over, the Wizards led by 15 again, and the Verizon Center crowd greeted the sudden turn of events with the first loud ovation of the evening.

“People are going to start realizing what type of team we are,” Beal said. “There’s all this talk about us being in the East, but we’re going to compete against anybody on any given night.”