DENVER — Time to get this over with.

It’s a crying shame, too.

After losing Game 3 118-113 to the Golden State Warriors on a loud, proud Thursday night at Ball Arena, the Nuggets’ season will end Sunday in Game 4. How it should be. These Nuggets are not a second-round playoff team.

The final sequence perfectly summed up a Nuggets season that’s all but a wrap: Nikola Jokic, the best player in the world, passed up a 3-point shot and passed it to Will Barton, who had his shot blocked. Read on if you’re bored, but that’s the whole story in one possession, friends.

How would this season have gone with a healthy Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.? Not like this. But no NBA team has ever recovered from a 3-0 deficit to ultimately win the series.

Bummer, since it was too much fun watching Jokic defend his MVP award. The Nuggets getting swamped in the first round is actually a testament to Joker’s candidacy. They would have a top-5 draft pick without him. And it was a real kick in the pants to witness rookie Na’Shon “Bones” Hyland treat each day like a kid who got exactly what he wanted at Christmas. Mostly without Murray and MPJ, the Nuggets won 48 games, kept things interesting and made you watch — if you could watch.

Similar to courtside guest Peyton Manning back in the day, Joker covered up all the cracks.

But it’s time. The Warriors lead the series 3-0.

Time to go, and Sunday’s the day.

“I asked our team: Come Sunday, are we going to roll over, or are we going to fight like hell?” coach Michael Malone said after.

The Nuggets won’t roll over, but they’re not good enough to beat the Warriors.

Not even once.

Thursday, the Nuggets made it interesting, a series first. They outscored the Warriors 30-18 in the third quarter. They took a five-point lead after the joint smelled like blowout. They trotted out a lineup that should’ve been overwhelmed and made the Warriors sweat, another series first. Golden State won Game 1 by 16, Game 2 by 20, and those scores were deceiving.

The games in San Francisco weren’t as close as the scores appeared. Game 3 finally was. It took a 9-2 Warriors run to finally close out Joker, who had 37 points, 18 rebounds and five assists in a spectacular display of defiance.

“When you’re a little bit undermanned like we are, we have to be ultra-physical, ultra-aggressive, and take the fight to them,” Malone said Thursday before tipoff.

And that’s the disappointing part of this series — not how the Warriors have picked the score most of the time, or that Denver’s going to bail out of the playoffs in the first round for the first time in the Jokic era, or that a man named Jordan Poole (not the great Steph Curry or Klay Thompson) is largely responsible for the damage. Poole had 27 points Thursday. He’s the real deal. He’s why Purdue athlete Jaden Ivey should go No. 1 in the upcoming draft.

But the real bummer is how the Warriors dished out punch after punch in Games 1 and 2, and the Nuggets were simply… cool with it. How ‘bout a little fight over here, guys?

Hey, it’s not me saying as much. Malone called out his team’s want-to before Game 3.

“I’m going down with guys that are going to fight and leave it all out there,” Malone said.

Translation: the players he had been playing weren’t showing the fight these Nuggets had made their trademark. Well, that’s not entirely true. Barton and DeMarcus Cousins fought each other in Game 2. And when teammates show more fight at each other, well, you know what’s about to go down. And they’re going down.

“Undermanned” is putting it kindly, by the way. The Warriors are better at four of five starting spots, on the bench, at coach and, when the Nuggets don’t wear their “City” uniforms, Golden State has better uniforms. Healthy Golden State can win the whole dang thing.

The Nuggets’ championship is Joker’s MVP award.

With one more defeat, which will come Sunday, a bittersweet Nuggets season will be over. Joker’s going to not celebrate his second straight MVP, and he’ll be back in Serbia training his horses before Mother’s Day to accept it.

It’s all so Nuggets it hurts. Had the best player in the world last year… but didn’t have Jamal Murray, Will Barton or PJ Dozier for a playoff series against the Suns. Have the best player in the world this year… but didn’t have Murray or Michael Porter Jr. against the Warriors.

Two straight MVPs for Joker, the possibility of two straight sweeps in the postseason.

Time to get this over with, a crying shame.