The Nuggets’ championship window has rapidly turned into a brick wall, and coach Michael Malone is banging his head against it.

As painful as that sounds, Denver is even more brutal to watch.

“This is not the start we wanted, but it’s our reality,” Malone said Saturday, when Denver remained winless after two home games in this NBA season, after blowing a fourth-quarter lead and losing 109-104 to the Los Angeles Clippers.

In the span of less than 18 months, the Nuggets have morphed from kings of the NBA world to a gang that can’t shoot straight.

Championship contender?

Only in the misguided imagination of guard Jamal Murray.

“We won the championship with most of the guys that have been here,” Murray said.

Yes, the Core Four of Nikola Jokic, Murray, Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon all took the floor on a gorgeous autumn afternoon in Colorado when any of 19,691 paying customers in Ball Arena would have been better served taking a hike, wetting a fishing line or cleaning out the garage.

Right now, this is an overpaid, undermotivated collection of mismatched parts, competitive only because of Jokic. If not for the best player in the world, the Nuggets would be among the worst teams in the league.

Jokic scored 41 points against the Clippers, collected nine rebounds and made as many shots from three-point range (seven) as the rest of his Denver teammates combined.

And it wasn’t enough.

“Just because I scored (41) today that doesn’t mean I played good,” Jokic said.

The Nuggets’ Core Four is being paid a combined $146 million in salaries this season.

And Jokic is the only one truly earning his money. Gordon busts his tail, even when his shot isn’t falling. But Murray and MPJ? They’re getting away with the hoops version of highway robbery.

We all know talent is the No. 1 ingredient of any champion. In a make-or-miss league, nothing succeeds like drilling shots. And as Joker warned us after the season-opening loss to Oklahoma City, the Nuggets don’t shoot the ball well by NBA standards.

But there is something more missing in the Denver locker room. Where’s the chemistry? The swagger? Or the focus?

The Nuggets came out looking flat and uninterested, falling behind 18 points in the second quarter.

“I didn’t see any signs of life,” Malone said.

General manager Calvin Booth made a low-cost wager that there was still a little MVP magic left in soon to be 36-year-old guard Russell Westbrook. And after two games, he looks lost, if not washed. He has clanked 16 of his 18 field-goal attempts, too inept to add energy to a second unit that’s iffy, at best.

By the grace of Jokic’s individual excellence, the Nuggets forged a one-point lead entering the fourth quarter, and looked ready to bury a Clippers team playing without injured Kawhi Leonard when Jokic splashed a three-point shot to stake Denver to an 87-80 lead with six minutes, 55 seconds remaining in the contest.

But at crunch time, it was Joker against the world. The best player on the planet had no dependable friends in a Denver uniform.

Although the home crowd tried to buoy him with chants of “M-V-P,” when Jokic missed a free throw and a three-pointer during the final 20 seconds of the fourth quarter, it was a harsh reminder that anything less than total perfection can result in complete disaster for the Nuggets.

“Right now,” Malone said, “we’re trying to figure ourselves out.”

How long is Jokic willing to wait for this team to get its act together?

“Probably yesterday,” he said.

At the final buzzer, while his Denver teammates quickly bolted to the locker room with hangdog expressions, Jokic was left nearly alone on the floor to shake hands, exchange hugs, and offer congratulations to the Clippers.

It was a nearly perfect snapshot to capture a team whose vibe is all wrong.

All by himself, Joker is not enough for these Nuggets to be somebody.