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.
