MINNEAPOLIS — More than a month since their last loss, the Nuggets led Game 2 of their first-round playoff series by 19. They were putting on a show for Ball Arena, seemingly determined not just to send their rivals into the offseason but to humiliate them. Jamal Murray was high-fiving fans seated court-side. Tim Hardaway Jr. was diving two rows deep into the stands. Denver was enjoying premature visions of a 2-0 series lead over Minnesota.

The series has devolved into a hysteria that the young and arrogant Timberwolves feed on since that first quarter of Game 2. The Nuggets’ 13-game win streak has been replaced by a three-game skid that now threatens a season once earmarked with championship ambition. Even if they pull off the improbable and overcome a 3-1 deficit, their playoff path will have been clogged by a physically and emotionally arduous seven games. The opponents will only get more difficult.

They can no longer bring themselves to think about any of that, not after a 112-96 Game 4 loss Saturday in Minnesota. As they turned their attention toward a do-or-die Game 5, coach David Adelman defended his team’s “competitive spirit” in response to a question about where it had gone.

“You don’t think we were competitive tonight?” the first-year coach asked.

“I thought we were very competitive tonight,” he said. “I think it’s hilarious that the narrative is offense doesn’t matter. When you shoot 24% in the second half, it’s hard to win. I thought our guys played their (butts) off throughout that first half. I thought they maintained a physicality about them. And you give (the Timberwolves) credit. Two guys off their bench had 60 points combined. I don’t think that’s from ‘competitive spirit’ issues. That’s from two guys having a great night and us having a really tough second half offensively.”

Adelman pointed out that excluding Minnesota’s two garbage-time buckets, the Nuggets held their hosts to 108 points — and that when “you hold a team to 108 in the NBA, you should have a great chance to win the game.” Denver has failed to score 100 twice in a row after never falling short of that mark when Nikola Jokic played this regular season.

“That’s why the guys in the locker room are very frustrated but very understanding of how close we are to flipping the series,” Adelman said. “And I don’t care what you write. I really don’t. I know what the team feels. I know what they felt before the game. The narrative doesn’t matter to me. I know the feeling of the group, and I know there’s something in us.”

Jokic is averaging 25 points on 39.1% shooting in the series. Murray is 37.1% from the field and 26.5% from 3-point range. They combined to miss 18 of 24 shots in the second half Saturday, bottled up again by Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels. The supporting cast around them has been thoroughly outmatched by Ayo Dosunmu and Naz Reid.

Among Denver’s six players who’ve attempted at least 27 shots in the series, Cam Johnson’s 44.1% is the highest field goal percentage. The Nuggets had as many turnovers as made shots (nine) in the second half of Game 4.

And a team that led the NBA in 3-point efficiency all season is now 28.5% through four playoff games.

“Probably it’s a little bit of everything,” Jokic said. “Not setting screens. Not getting guys open. They’ve played some good defense. They have an effect on that, too. Our passes, like, I had a couple of passes not on time, not on target. And other guys, too. I think in playoffs — not in playoffs — in general in basketball, if you have advantage, you need to pass the ball. And your pass needs to give him that advantage, if that makes any sense. … I didn’t do a good job with that today. Hopefully we can be much better.”

“It’s incredibly frustrating,” Aaron Gordon said. “Just dwelling on Game 2. Not taking care of home court. So that’s the hard part about trying to let go and focus on the next game, but knowing that we’ve let opportunities slip.”

Gordon was playing on a bum calf in Game 4, causing Adelman to pull him late on a night he struggled to locate his usual athleticism and feel. Jokic assessed his overall play as “average” through four games, lamenting his off-kilter 3-point precision and crediting Gobert’s defense. Murray left the arena without speaking to reporters.

After Game 3, he had pinpointed Denver’s lack of emotional control of the tempo as a key theme. It persisted in Game 4, when the Timberwolves came out of halftime with a second wind despite having lost Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo for the series.

“They sped up. Offensively and defensively, they sped up,” Gordon said. “We got faster, too. And we don’t need to do that. We need to slow the game down. … It’s uncharacteristic of us, getting sped up. Usually, we don’t do that. Usually, we control the pace of the game regardless of pressure.”

Consider it a matter of poise. That was the word Gordon used Saturday when he was asked to describe the Nuggets’ personality as a team over the last few years. He admitted that they haven’t lived up to it against Minnesota’s tenacity. Frustration simmered in a quiet locker room. The Nuggets were able to diagnose their problems, but they were at a loss for fixes.

“Just an embarrassing first four games of the series,” Christian Braun said.

“We’ve just gotta show up in Game 5 and play well in front of our crowd. We owe that to them. We owe that to them to show up and play well.”