Riding their first three-game winning streak in more than two months, the Golden State Warriors will try to make it four in a row when they visit the surging Denver Nuggets on Sunday night.

Golden State (36-38) holds the 10th and final spot in the play-in, trailing Portland by half a game with eight games left. The Warriors still have a chance to reach the playoffs despite significant injuries.

Jimmy Butler (torn ACL) and Moses Moody (torn patella) are out for the season, Al Horford has been sidelined for two weeks with a calf injury and Steph Curry has missed 24 straight games with a troublesome knee and won’t play Sunday night.

Curry is close to returning, but Golden State is being cautious with its 38-year-old star.

“We’re not bringing him back (only) for the play-in game,” head coach Steve Kerr told ESPN. “He’d need to play some games. We need to give him a runway if this is going to work. And we are running out of games. That’s fair to say.”

Without Curry, the Warriors have relied on different players to pick up the scoring slack. In Friday night’s win over Washington, Kristaps Porzingis had 28 points, the fourth time in 10 games since coming from Atlanta in a trade that he has put up 20 or more points.

Porzingis is averaging 17.1 points between the Hawks and Golden State but has upped that to 17.7 in March.

The only player to appear in all 74 games for the Warriors is Brandin Podziemski, who is averaging 13.2 points.

Golden State has won two of the first three meetings with Denver and can take the season series Sunday night. The Nuggets (47-28) have won five in a row and eight of their last 10 to stay in the hunt for a top seed in the Western Conference.

Denver’s last two victories haven’t been easy despite playing teams fighting for a high draft pick. The Nuggets held off Dallas on Wednesday night behind huge games from Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic and then had to rally from down 13 to beat Utah on Friday night.

“I just think our energy from the beginning of the game has to be better. We’ve had a lot of slow starts as of late,” head coach David Adelman said. “Obviously, we’re very talented offensively, we can always make a run, get back in games, but we shouldn’t have to work our way into every game. You have to come with more purpose to start the game.”

Denver is in the midst of playing nine of its final 12 games at home and has taken advantage of the schedule. The Nuggets are fourth in the West, a game and a half ahead of Minnesota and a game and a half behind the Los Angeles Lakers for third.

The Warriors will have to slow down Jokic and Murray, who are playing well down the stretch. Jokic leads the team in scoring (27.9), rebounds (12.8) and assists (10.8) and is on the verge of averaging a triple-double for the second straight season.

Murray, who is averaging a career-high 25.5 points, has scored 31 and 53 in the last two games.

–Field Level Media

The NBA suspended Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic for one game without pay on Saturday for receiving his 16th technical foul this season, and he will miss Monday’s game against the visiting Washington Wizards.

Doncic, the league’s leading scorer, was assessed a technical along with Brooklyn forward Ziaire Williams when they jostled each other with 5:12 remaining in the third quarter of the host Lakers’ 116-99 victory on Friday.

An offensive foul was called seconds earlier on Doncic, and a video review showed him pushing Williams, with the Nets player retaliating by swiping at Doncic’s face.

The 16th technical triggered an automatic suspension, which will cost Doncic 1/174th of his annual salary, about $264,000, per ESPN. League rules stipulate that following the 16th technical, for every two additional technicals, the player will be suspended another game without pay.

The Lakers had successfully appealed Doncic’s most-recent technical for a yelling match with Orlando Magic center Goga Bitadze on March 21. The league rescinded the technicals.

Doncic, 27, is averaging 33.7 points, 8.2 assists and 7.8 rebounds for the Lakers (48-26), who are in third place in the Western Conference with eight games remaining in the regular season.

A six-time All-Star guard, Doncic has been selected All-NBA first team five times and was the 2018-19 NBA Rookie of the Year.

–Field Level Media

Marta Suarez scored a career-high 33 points, Olivia Miles added 28 points in a near triple-double and third-seeded TCU ended Virginia’s magical NCAA Tournament run with a 79-69 victory in the Sweet 16 in Sacramento on Saturday.

Miles had 10 rebounds and eight assists and Suarez had 10 rebounds as the Horned Frogs (32-5) overcame a one-point halftime deficit by scoring the first 11 points of the third quarter to take control.

The Horned Frogs will make their second straight Elite Eight appearance when they meet top-seeded South Carolina on Monday.

Suarez had 13 points in the third quarter, when Miles had six assists and four rebounds as the Frogs pushed their lead to 15. The 10th-seeded Cavaliers did not get closer than eight until the final 31 seconds.

Miles’ two free throws with 26.1 seconds left for a 77-69 lead clinched it. She is one of four Division I players with at least 600 points, 250 rebounds and 100 assists.

Paris Clark had 20 points and Kymora Johnson had 18 for the Cavaliers (22-12), the lowest seed to reach the Sweet 16 since 2022.

Clara Silva had eight points and eight rebounds for TCU, which had a 38-29 edge on the boards and limited Virginia to 41% shooting.

Virginia led by seven late in the first quarter. TCU took a 35-33 lead with 1:09 left in the first half, when Suarez made a free throw after Romi Levy was called for a Flagrant 1 foul for pulling Miles down as she drove to the basket.

Clark’s three-point play gave the Cavaliers a 36-35 lead at halftime.

–Field Level Media