The Denver Nuggets had every reason to feel good about their position in the third quarter Saturday night. They were up seven, they had Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray on the floor, and Minnesota was playing without two of their most important players due to leg injuries.

For all intents and purposes, this team had put itself in a spot where experience and talent were supposed to take over. Instead, everything unraveled. And the player who unraveled it was someone almost nobody expected heading into this series.

Ayo Dosunmu, acquired by Minnesota from Chicago at the trade deadline, finished with 43 points on 13 of 17 shooting. He went five for five from three and twelve for twelve from the free throw line.

It was the highest-scoring playoff performance by a reserve in fifty years of NBA basketball, and Denver spent most of the second half with no answer for any of it. Minnesota won 112-96 and the Nuggets are now down 3-1, facing elimination Monday on their home floor.

What was most alarming about Saturday night wasn't the final score, it was how Denver got there. As crazy as it is to say, the Nuggets ultimately went down quietly, losing their seven point third quarter lead through a series of careless turnovers near halfcourt that Minnesota converted into easy transition points.

Julius Randle added a steal and a fast break dunk. Dosunmu had another steal and layup in the fourth. Denver kept giving the ball away and Minnesota kept making them pay. Jamal Murray finished with 30 points and Jokic put up 24 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists.

But the Nuggets shot just six of twenty seven from three, and the fight that's defined this franchise's best moments simply wasn't there when things got hard. Minnesota was missing two starters and still won by sixteen. That's a number Denver's front office is going to be sitting with for a long time.

The ugly finish didn't help either. With 2.1 seconds left Jokic confronted Jaden McDaniels after a meaningless layup and both he and Randle were ejected. It was a frustrated reaction from a team that knows this series is slipping away.

If this is the end of Denver's run, and right now it's trending that way, the front office can't run it back and hope for a different result. This core has had its window. Jokic is still the best player on the floor most nights, but the players around him are aging and the energy that carried this team to a championship isn't what it used to be.

Win at Ball Arena or the season is over. But beyond Monday, this organization has some hard conversations coming. It's going to be time to look in the mirror very soon.