Hail to the Nuggets! Hell, yes!

They played as excellently as they could Thursday night. But excellent is not excellent enough against the Warriors.

The Nuggets lost in the final minute as they couldn’t score or stop or scrap, but they could raise their heads a mile high at the end.

After the Warriors won their first two games against the Nuggets and the Suns’ Devin Booker injured his hamstring Wednesday, the gambling guys installed the Warriors as the odds-on favorite to win the NBA championship.

Wanna bet?

These Warriors are as wonderful as their title teams.

Who else will defeat them? Nobody.

The Nuggets, without two injured stars and without five other uninjured players who haven’t shown up in the postseason, should be praised, not condemned. It’s just not to be.

After suffering through another second-quarter meltdown in Game 3 of the series, the Nuggets could have quit. In the first three games the Warriors outscored the Nuggets before halftime 15-2, 16-0 and, Thursday, 16-4. The first two decimated the Nuggets. The third didn’t, as the Nuggets rallied from a 69-59 difference to play their most sensational third quarter so far to tie, then lead.

They were driven by the MOST VALUABLE PLAYER, who finished with 37 points, 18 rebounds and five assists.

“Experts’’ on the NBA have been dismissing Nikola Jokic recently, claiming he’s not the same league with Joel Embiid, especially after the 76ers’ center drilled a three-pointer to beat the Raptors Wednesday night. Jokic — who established an NBA record 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 500 assists in 2021-22 — has been called a Robot instead of The Joker. Those people looked at him in the first two games of the Warriors’ series and said “very good,’’ but “not great.’’ Especially after he became so frustrated in Game 2 and was ejected for his usual complaints about the officiating.

But Jokic, with a new sheared haircut, was sensational Thursday night, and he finally got some help from his mates. Jokic and his stand-in Boogie Cousins kept the Nuggets in the game in the first half, and Nikola assumed control in the third quarter when the Nuggets came back.

It was assumed that the Nuggets fans already had surrendered. Coach Michael Malone said he expected The Jar sellout would have divided loyalties. But the roar of the crowd was evident in the second half as Jokic and the Nuggets turned the game into one of the most exciting moments ever at the arena.

Meanwhile, the Warriors’ Draymond Green rolled his ankle, and Jordan Poole, who had been a monster in the series, had to leave for a while after hurting his left (non-shooting) elbow.

But, of course, the Nuggets weren’t playing as Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. sat on the bench as they have in the postseason and the regular season.

The Warriors’ three guards — Poole, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson — were virtually unstoppable as they have been throughout the series. The Nuggets have no solution to their twos and threes, especially at the closing after Green stole the ball.

But the Nuggets did rachet up their defense in the second half, and the offense finally equaled the Warriors for a change. Midway of the fourth quarter Jokic had 31 points and played the champion he should be someday in the heart of his career.

No NBA team in history has responded from an 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series. The Nuggets came back from being down 0-2 against the SuperSonics to win a five-game series in 1994, then were behind 3-0 vs. the Jazz before forcing a seventh game — and losing. Two years ago the Nuggets were behind 3-1 in two series and pulled off miraculous returns to win both.

They won’t win this series against the Warriors, but they made the Warriors worry Thursday night.

Perhaps the Nuggets will win Game 4 and pressure the Warriors.

Nevertheless, the Nuggets should be extolled for the performance Thursday night.

It was their greatest defeat ever.

Steve Kerr had called the Nuggets a “hell of a team,’’ and he was scoffed at.

After arguments among players and second-quarter issues and a series that seemed too large for Aaron Gordon, and brain burps, the Nuggets finally collected themselves and gave the Warriors as much as they wanted — and more.

The Nuggets eventually will lose the series. But they have become a real NBA playoff team.

Hell, yes.