DENVER — Lock the door. Activate the alarm. Last one left, turn out the lights.

The Denver Nuggets’ championship window unofficially closed on their fingers Saturday night in Minneapolis.

For the third time in four games against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Nuggets just weren’t good enough. In Game 1, they choked. Thursday they capitulated. Saturday, they evaporated.

Timberwolves 112, Nuggets 96.

The Nuggets are no longer measured by excellence, but effort. They tried harder. They showed fight. That it came with one second left in the game when Nikola Jokic confronted Jaden McDaniels for scoring rather than running out the clock was symbolic.

We finally found the line that an opponent cannot cross. You can call the Nuggets horrible defenders. You can label them floppers. You can point fingers in their face and dunk on their heads.

But don’t you dare break an unwritten rule in their presence.

Really? That is what it has come to.

It conjured images of Colorado Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland trying to fight San Francisco Giants slugger Rafael Devers for admiring his home run last summer.

If the Nuggets showed this much resistance in Game 3 and the first 47 minutes, 59 seconds of Game 4, they would not be in this position.

Thursday was an embarrassment, the Nuggets pantsed at halfcourt for the world to see. Saturday was a disappointment.

The Timberwolves lost Donte DiVincenzo (season-ending ruptured right Achilles) and superstar Anthony Edwards (hyperextended left knee) in the first half and Denver could not capitalize.

How does a team get stripped of two of its best players and get better?

Ayo Dosunmu.

Acquired in February from the Chicago Bulls, Dosunmu drained 43 points in 42 minutes. He almost outscored Jokic and Jamal Murray by himself. The pair finished with 54 points, but converted only 18 of 47 attempts, including 6 for 24 in the second half.

During an ugly stretch in the fourth quarter, the Nuggets missed 14 of 15 shots.

The reason the Nuggets made David Adelman the head coach was his offensive wizardry. Nuggets Nation would like to wave a wand and see him disappear.

When a team goes cold, they must find another way to win. The Nuggets could not get stops and showed no respect for Dosunmu with how they guarded him. Minnesota scored on roughly two-thirds of its possessions over the last 18 minutes.

Adelman insisted that his team demonstrated competitive spirit, citing the make-or-break league as an explanation for the loss. That and Dosunmu going off.

“I just feel like we are very close,” Adelman said.

Close to what? The edge of the cliff? To blowing up the roster? To determining when to board the Southwest Airlines C group to Cancun?

Adelman took exception to questions from reporters at the Target Center, not appreciating the negativity about the way his “team competed.”

This is what we are doing now? Are the Nuggets going to start passing out Capri Suns and orange slices after games?

This is so beneath them. They are former champions. Minnesota is howling. And Denver is whimpering.

Does Jokic really want to end this season like this? Running down the court to confront McDaniels? The confrontation, which involved Jokic pushing McDaniels and yelling at Julius Randle, led to an ejection. Randle was also tossed.

“(It was) because he scored when everyone stopped playing,” Jokic said. “Come on guys, you saw what happened.”

Replays did not show evidence for suspending Jokic. That might be the only sliver of good news for Game 5 Monday night in Denver. That, and his teammates had his back.

It would have been nice if they had supported him with points. Or blocks. Or a hard foul to open Game 3 or Game 4 to put McDaniels on notice.

“I didn’t like what McDaniels did. The game was over, the game was conceded both ways. In 2026, that stuff just doesn’t happen anymore. That stuff happens in the ‘80s, where teams continue to score. But that’s who he is.” Adelman said. “If that’s what they want to do, that’s what they do.”

It had nothing to do with the loss, Adelman explained. Except it had everything to do with it. With every injury update increasingly worse on DiVincenzo and Edwards, the Timberwolves rallied around the bench guys. Found fire in their stars’ absence.

With Aaron Gordon playing on one leg, the Nuggets were not inspired. When wobbled, they could not get off the ropes.

It was a replay of Game 3. The Nuggets stopped going inside to Jokic, especially with Rudy Gobert out. They let the Timberwolves speed them up and dictate the tempo.

And after committing one turnover in the first 24 minutes, they coughed up the ball nine times in the second half, while shooting 24%.

“We knew they were going to be emotional coming out after the half because of the unfortunate injuries they had,” guard Christian Braun said. “We have got to show some fight in Game 5. And I know we will. We are going to show up. We are going to play well. We are going to guard. We are going to be physical. We are going to rebound. It’s not over.”

Well, at least they are saying the right things. The gravity of the Game 2 loss, squandering homecourt advantage, is finally clobbering them over the head.

There are no more excuses. You cannot blame Gordon’s health — give him credit for giving it a go, but it will be a shock if he plays on Monday. You cannot blame Peyton Watson’s absence.

The Nuggets have talent, but are not consistent. They have a deeper bench, but Adelman won’t use it.

That is at the essence of why the Timberwolves are on the verge of knocking the Nuggets in the first round for the first time since 2022.

With 1:02 remaining, the full-throat crowd at the Target Center roared “Wolves in 5!”

It feels over. Not just the series. The Nuggets’ run as part of the upper crust in the Western Conference.

The disconnect is obvious. The players care, but can no longer control the results. The coach believes, but keeps pointing to his team’s lack of offense.

In the end, there is no defending the Nuggets. They can try to convince themselves they are in this position because they are not making shots.

The reality is that they have shown unequivocally that they cannot take a punch.

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