Two teams battling to keep pace in the Western Conference playoff race meet when the Golden State Warriors face the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday in San Francisco.

Minnesota has slipped to sixth place in the crowded West standings after dropping three consecutive games, while fading Golden State has fallen under .500 for the first time in nearly three months.

March began on a high note for Minnesota, which briefly moved into third place in the West following a five-game winning streak. Since then, the Timberwolves have lost three in a row by an average of 22 points.

Minnesota struggled on the defensive end in a 153-128 road loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday. Kawhi Leonard scored 45 points to lead the Clippers, who shot 63.4% from the field and 51.4% (19 of 37) from 3-point range.

“Obviously, it’s not acceptable,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “They didn’t have a single quarter under 35 points. Not an acceptable defensive performance at all.”

Anthony Edwards led Minnesota against the Clippers with 36 points, while Naz Reid added 18. Julius Randle was held to 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting. The loss came one night after the Timberwolves’ 120-106 defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers.

“We’ve got to regroup. We’ve got to play both sides of the floor,” Finch said. “(On Tuesday) it was our offense, and (Wednesday) it was our defense. So we’ve got to put a complete game together, come back together. We know we’re a good team. Feels like we’re a million miles away from where we were a week ago, but we’re not.”

Golden State is likewise looking for answers after losing three straight. The short-handed Warriors followed up Monday’s road loss to the Utah Jazz with a 130-124 overtime defeat to the visiting Chicago Bulls on Tuesday.

“Both very winnable games,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Had the lead late (Tuesday), obviously one we should’ve had. This is how the NBA is, especially when you’re beaten up. You’re not going to blow anybody out. Games are going to be tight. You’ve got to finish. We didn’t finish either of the last two nights.”

LJ Cryer, Gui Santos, Kristaps Porzingis and Pat Spencer each scored 17 points against the Bulls to lead Golden State, which played without Stephen Curry (knee), De’Anthony Melton (adductor), Moses Moody (wrist) and Quinten Post (foot).

Curry has missed the last 15 games and will be evaluated again on March 21. The Warriors are play-in tournament eligible while in ninth place in the West and have gone 5-10 during Curry’s absence.

“We’re at the point in the season where we’re fighting just to stay alive right now,” Spencer said. “The goal is to get into that seven/eight (play-in) game. I don’t think we’re going to put too much stress on each individual game. But we know how important every game is now down the stretch.”

With 17 games left in the regular season, Golden State will be leaning on young players such as guard Brandin Podziemski, who was limited to nine points on 3-of-8 shooting against Chicago.

The Warriors have lost two of three meetings against Minnesota this season, including a 108-83 road defeat on Jan. 26.

–Field Level Media

Brayden Burries scored 21 points and top-seeded Arizona never trailed while cruising to an 81-59 victory over eighth-seeded UCF on Thursday afternoon in Kansas City to reach the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament.

Tobe Awaka had 12 points and 12 rebounds in the quarterfinal matchup and Koa Peat also scored 12 points for the Wildcats (30-2). Ivan Kharchenkov added 10 points for Arizona.

Themus Fulks scored 14 points for the Knights (21-11), who are expected to receive an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament. Jordan Burks and Chris Johnson added 10 points apiece for UCF.

Arizona will face fifth-seeded Iowa State in Friday night’s first semifinal.

UCF’s John Bol was helped off the court with an apparent chest injury with 11:07 remaining in the game, collapsing to the floor while touching his chest with a hand. He had six points and five rebounds.

Arizona shot 48.3% from the field, including 6 of 16 from 3-point range, while leading by as much as 27.

The Knights made 36.5% of their attempts and were just 3 of 21 from behind the arc.

UCF threatened to make it a game after cutting its 27-point first-half deficit to 54-42 on Johnson’s floater with 11:49 left in the game.

But Awaka converted a three-point play to get it back to 15. A short time later, Motiejus Krivas made two free throws to give the Wildcats a 61-44 advantage with 8:22 left in the contest.

The Knights made another attempt on baskets by Johnson and Burks to move within 13 with 7:24 to play.

The Wildcats pushed the lead back to 66-49 on a dunk by Peat with 5:31 left.

A trey by Fulks got UCF within 12 with 4:48 left before Burries went on a personal 7-0 burst to give Arizona a 73-54 lead with 3:32 to play.

Kharchenkov followed with a 3-point play to boost the lead to 22 with 2:53 left as the Wildcats closed it out.

Arizona exploded at the outset of the game with seven straight points and led 14-2 before the game was five minutes old.

Awaka scored consecutive baskets to make it 20-6 with 13:11 left in the half. Johnson scored next for UCF before the Wildcats ripped off 15 straight points.

Peat scored the last five of that run to give Arizona a 35-8 lead with 7:38 left in the half.

The Knights later scored 18 of the last 25 points in the half to trail 46-30 at the break.

–Field Level Media

If the New York Islanders were in the Western Conference, they already would be preparing to host playoff games.

If the Los Angeles Kings were in the Eastern Conference, they likely would have spent the trade deadline looking toward the future instead of loading up for a postseason push.

Thanks to geography, both teams will be in the position of trying to bolster their playoff chances Friday night when the Islanders host the Kings in Elmont, N.Y.

Both have been off since playing overtime road games on Tuesday. The Islanders overcame a three-goal deficit to edge the St. Louis Blues 4-3 and the Kings fell 2-1 to the Boston Bruins.

Mathew Barzal’s winner allowed the Islanders to salvage a split of a four-game road trip (2-2-0) and become the first NHL team to win its first 10 overtime decisions.

The 2021 Vegas Golden Knights went 9-0 in overtime during the pandemic-shortened 56-game season.

More importantly, the two points ensured the Islanders would remain in a playoff spot. New York entered Thursday tied for second in the Metropolitan Division with the Pittsburgh Penguins at 79 points apiece, three ahead of the surging Columbus Blue Jackets.

“This was an important game,” Islanders head coach Patrick Roy said. “Winning that one makes a big difference because every team in our division got a point today.”

The Islanders are tied with the wild card-leading Detroit Red Wings and are one point ahead of the Bruins. The Penguins, Blue Jackets, Red Wings and Bruins all play Thursday night.

The Blue Jackets climbed out of last place in the East and gained seven points on the Islanders by going 14-2-3 since hiring Rick Bowness as head coach on Jan. 12. New York is 12-8-0 in the same span.

The playoff race the Kings are involved in is decidedly less heated.

With 67 points, Los Angeles entered Thursday in a tie with the Seattle Kraken for the West’s second wild-card spot. The Kraken had a game in hand ahead of their clash with the league-leading Colorado Avalanche.

That point total would place the Kings and Kraken in a tie for 13th in the East. The Islanders would have the fourth-most points in the West and the most in the Pacific Division.

The Kings have lost eight of 11 since Feb. 1, a stretch in which they acquired left winger Artemi Panarin from the New York Rangers and center Scott Laughton from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Panarin has eight points in eight games with Los Angeles, while Laughton has three points in as many games.

Los Angeles is 2-2-1 since March 1, when head coach Jim Hiller was fired and replaced by D.J. Smith.

The inconsistency stretches further back for the Kings, who have won consecutive games just three times since the start of December. The Islanders have seven separate winning streaks in the span.

The Kings had a chance to win a second straight game Tuesday despite collecting just 16 shots, their third fewest in a game this season. Drew Doughty forced overtime by scoring with six minutes left before Charlie McAvoy scored 39 seconds into the extra session for the Bruins.

“We showed resilience and heart tonight,” Doughty said. “We played hard. We got a point against a really good team and can take some positives, but clearly we need to look at the negatives and fix those things.”

–Field Level Media