On a painful night when Jamal Murray was too gimpy to jump, it hurt for Nikola Jokic to shoot and Denver fans booed to vent frustration, the Nuggets darkened the arena and aimed a spotlight at their championship banner in the rafters, beaming a Bat-Signal of distress to our local basketball heroes.

In the biggest game of the regular season, the defending NBA champs got crushed 111-98 on Friday by Minnesota guard Anthony “Ant-Man” Edwards and the audacious Timberwolves, who issued a statement the Nuggets would be ill-advised to ignore.

“They’re the best team in the league, it’s going to be hard to beat them,” Edwards said. “But we ain’t that far.”

When the best starting five in the league is bounding with energy and playing with swagger, there ain’t nobody in this sport that can touch Denver.

The Nuggets still have a heart of a champion, but it’s so fragile as to require bubble wrap.

During a contest when nothing less than the top seed in the Western Conference was at stake, we were bluntly reminded that Denver, which failed to force a single turnover before halftime and trailed by as many as 26 points in the third quarter, can wildly fluctuate between invincible and inept on any given night.

“We weren’t ready to play. We weren’t physical. We weren’t aggressive. That first half we deserved to be booed off the floor,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “It starts with me.”

It might be convenient to chalk up this butt-kicking by the T-Wolves to the mental and physical fatigue of the NBA grind, then reassure yourself with the memory that Denver looked bored after locking up the top seed last spring before ripping through the playoffs with a 16-4 record to claim the first championship in franchise history.

Legit excuses for getting humiliated by Minnesota? Denver had more than a few. A creaky knee kept Jamal in street clothes and a sore wrist made Joker’s shot squeak.

But is the answer to what currently ails the Nuggets as simple as putting aside pursuit of the No. 1 seed to concentrate on getting the gang healthy for when the playoffs begin in three weeks?

Please don’t be naive, Pollyanna.

“This is not last year,” Malone said. “We don’t have a cushion. … We’re in a dogfight.”

A year ago, the only source of real pain discernible in the Nuggets was from that boulder of a chip carried on their shoulders, injecting them with a sense of defiance to prove their doubters wrong.

It’s a whole different vibe when you’re hunted as the defending champs, especially when there’s the distinct possibility that, at every turn of the playoff road, Luka from the Big D, SGA from OKC and the Ant-Man from Minny could be itching for a fight with the Nuggets.

“They’re the defending champs, but we got all the pieces,” said Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels, noting how his team’s length can give the Nuggets fits. “It’s a good matchup for us, but I think we’re the better team.”

Riding high and feeling unbeatable, that 2023 quest for the Larry O’Brien Trophy felt like a cleansing for a franchise that had never won anything, especially the it’s-our-time-now sweep of LeBron James and the long-dominant Lakers in the conference finals.

Make no mistake. The championship greatness still resides within the Nuggets. But now it’s kept in bubble wrap like a fragile gift. When Malone points at a reserve to peel off his sweats and check in at the scorer’s table, the coach often looks as if he’s guessing.

A Denver team that lacks so much as a clearly identifiable sixth man has such an inconsistent bench that it’s unclear if Denver could survive any playoff series in which even a relatively minor injury sidelines Aaron Gordon, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or Michael Porter Jr. The foundation for a repeat stands on the 10 sneakers in the Denver starting lineup, and the Nuggets can ill afford a single sprained ankle.

Claiming the No. 1 seed means more to Minnesota or Oklahoma City, teams that haven’t established their championship bona fides.

While the Nuggets can be forgiven for pacing themselves before the playoff race begins in earnest, the Timberwolves have expended more energy in pursuit of homecourt advantage. “It would mean a lot,” Minnesota center Rudy Gobert admitted. “But at the same time, it doesn’t mean (bleep), because when the playoffs start, whoever we face, we’re going to face a really good team.”

After a victory that made his Timberpups the lead dog atop the Western Conference standings, Minnesota president of basketball operations Tim Connelly laughed outside the visitors locker room with former colleagues from Denver.

Connelly, who changed the course of Nuggets history by taking Jokic in the second round of the 2014 draft, departed the Denver front office when Minnnesota made an offer he couldn’t refuse a scant 13 months before Joker and Jamal enjoyed a victory parade through the streets of our Dusty Old Cowtown.

Are the Nuggets a dynasty in the making or is their championship glory already dust in the wind? They are respected, but not feared after Minnesota hammered an exclamation mark on the second-consecutive loss at home by Denver.

“We got our butts handed to us,” Nuggets guard Reggie Jackson said.

While ratings-obsessed television executives might quietly root for the Celtics or Clippers in the playoffs and ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith is loudly on record as wanting to see Denver bounced before the NBA Finals, a juicy rivalry the Nuggets have never truly enjoyed feels ready to explode between the team in Colorado that Connelly lovingly built before bringing Gobert with him to Minnesota to beat up on Jokic.

“He’s my friend right now, not my general manager,” Jokic said. “So I can talk bad things to him.”

So let’s get this trash-talk party started.

The champion that Connelly built versus the team constructed by Connelly to beat the Nuggets. Joker versus Ant-Man. Our Dusty Old Cowtown versus The Land of 10,000 Frozen Lakes.

It’s the NBA blockbuster that Stephen A. doesn’t know he needs.