DENVER — Michael Malone’s had angrier and more explosive ejections. That one against the Lakers where he got so mad he bumped into an official, a fiery one against his old team, the Kings. It’s a strong-to-very-strong list. 

This one Thursday in a terrible 103-89 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers wasn’t Full Mo. Not even close. When the Nuggets coach landed two technical fouls in the third quarter, it was kind of halfhearted, almost projecting. It’s my belief Malone was ticked at the officials but also at the Nuggets not named Nikola Jokic. “Every huddle you’re begging guys to fight,” he said, and that’s why he blew up.

“They came in and beat our ass,” Malone said after of the 76ers, who played without All-Stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons and still chased the Nuggets out of their own gym, Ball Arena.

What came out of the whole deal was a Malone ejection, another MVP-worthy performance from Joker, and the painful reality Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. can’t be out for too long.

Even with the NBA’s best player, again, the Nuggets aren’t good enough without those guys. This version of the Nuggets — the one without Murray and Porter — isn’t underachieving, either. It’s 9-6 and right about where it belongs.

The Nuggets badly need Porter and Murray to return from injury to make a dent in the West. It was only a few months ago the Nuggets weren’t competitive in a playoff sweep by the Suns, and this Nuggets starting lineup isn’t as good as that Nuggets starting lineup. Porter’s out “for the foreseeable future,” is how Malone put it, and who knows when Murray’s back from knee surgery? They’re not going to rush a $170 million 24-year-old. So there’s going to be a handful of losing-to-the-76ers nights at Ball Arena until those guys come back.

The Nuggets were terrible Thursday. Flat-out terrible. If they play like that Friday against the Bulls, the Bulls can pick the score. In a crucial third quarter, Monte Morris couldn’t make an entry pass and Aaron Gordon almost airballed a 3. Those are not part-timers, either. Those are starters now, and they and everyone not from Serbia were bad. Aaron Gordon and Jeff Green started for the Nuggets and scored nine more points than you did. Jokic had 27 points by halftime, and the other guys were so bad Malone projected his anger at the officials and got ejected shortly thereafter. It was worth a try. Malone’s had more memorable ejections, but he hasn’t had more exasperated ejections.

Let’s make this easy and say there are two ways the Nuggets are going to win a bunch of games without Murray and Porter: they’re going to play with their hair on fire (didn’t do that against the Sixers), or Jokic is going to carry them yet again. As for the latter one, Joker’s had 65 points, 26 rebounds and 13 assists over the last two games and the Nuggets lost both. So I don’t know what to tell you, but there’s going to be a bunch of that until Murray and Porter return.

Jokic leads the Nuggets in scoring (sixth in the NBA), rebounding (second), assists, and The Athletic’s John Hollinger wrote the other day Jokic has the highest player efficiency rating (PER) of all-time. It’s particularly incredible to witness Joker right now when you’ve seen the entire evolution of his Nuggets career. Soak it in. This is TD’s 2,000-yard season and Joe Sakic scoring 18 goals in one postseason. It’s nuts.

Jokic had more than half of his team’s points at halftime, 27 of 52. Fifteen of their 20 field goals came on a Jokic bucket or Jokic assist. All that craziness from Joker, and the Nuggets still lost to a beat-up but fired up 76ers team. The other guys weren’t good enough. The only silver lining of Murray and Porter Jr. missing games, and I mean the only one, is going to be the team’s social media pitch to NBA MVP voters: Remember when Joker won MVP last season? He’s better this season.

Something that’s been underrated the past seven or eight years is how the Nuggets hire smart and ambitious people. Sounds simple, but look around the country right now and tell me the people in charge are doing the same. And once the Nuggets hire smart people they help them land a better job — so the next round of smart hires knows there’s a serious chance for advancement. Check out Wes Unseld Jr. coaching the Wizards to the top spot in the Eastern Conference. He’s the NBA coach of the year before the holidays and he was in Denver five months ago. Then there’s ex-GM Arturas Karnisovas, who returns to Denver Friday night against the Nuggets. He’s one of the sharpest basketball people I’ve ever been around and turned the Bulls into must-watch TV in the best basketball city, Chicago. He brought the Bulls back quick.

“I’m anxious to see after tonight’s disappointing performance how we react (Friday),” Malone said.

For the Nuggets to get back to challenger status they need their guys back.

“I wasn’t trying to get tossed” because he was overly angry at the officials, Malone said. Well, maybe a little. But he was trying to fire up the non-Joker Nuggets. They weren’t good enough.