Coffee is for closers, and your Denver Nuggets ain’t no average Joes.

They gave a double espresso jolt of harsh reality to Oklahoma City on Friday night, with a 113-104 overtime victory in the NBA playoffs.

And the Nuggets gave us a reminder. It has been two years since they won a championship, but as Denver interim coach David Adelman said: “They know when it’s winning time.”

There’s the Thunder they know and love down in Oklahoma City.

But the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference wasn’t ready for the Rocky Mountain Thunder that shook Ball Arena as the Nuggets took a 2-1 advantage in this best-of-seven series.

On a spring evening when Nikola Jokic couldn’t find anything to love after his 3-year-old daughter Ognjena gave him a big hug in the back hallway of the arena before tipoff, Denver teammates picked up the league’s three-time MVP.

Somehow, the Nuggets won despite Jokic missing 17 of 25 shots from the field.

Guard Jamal Murray led the way with 27 points but got plenty of help from the relentless attacks of the rim by Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr. rediscovering his shooting touch.

“Our team is picking each other up,” Adelman said, ‘man by man.”.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the young turks from OKC seem convinced their time is now. And can you blame ‘em? After 68 wins during the regular season, many of them laughers, Oklahoma City takes the court with swagger and a hint of a smirk.

The Thunder is deeper, younger, faster and bouncier than the Nuggets.

And did we mention more talented?

Those self-evident truths were on full display during OKC’s 43-point beatdown of Denver in Game 2.

But the Nuggets don’t care.

What Denver has going for it, and maybe the Nuggets’ lone important advantage in this series, is the been-there, done-that T-shirts.

And, yes, the championship rings from 2023.

“I do believe late in games, you can rely on what you’ve seen and felt and done,” Adleman said.

There’s a long and storied NBA tradition of great teams on the rise getting schooled in the hard knocks of the playoffs.

Don’t believe me? Ask Michael Jordan. Or LeBron James.

And deserving of the MVP as SGA might be, he ain’t no Air Jordan.

The Nuggets aren’t the same intimidating team they were two years ago, when they rolled to a championship.

But they have the scars, the stories to tell and a die-hard orneriness rekindled after the firing of coach Michael Malone.

“It takes time,” Murray said, to develop the chemistry that allows players to lean on each other as more than teammates, but as a band of brothers during tough times on the court.

Oklahoma City could’ve, would’ve and probably should’ve blown Denver off its home floor early on this spring evening in the Rockies.

That the Nuggets trailed by no more than 56-51 at halftime was a gift from the basketball gods.

At intermission, the two fouls given to Jokic by the referees matched the two buckets he gave to the Denver offense.

And the same porous defense that drove Malone crazy was on full display, as the Thunder scored 34 points in the paint through two quarters.

Only the sharp shooting of Porter., who admits his left shoulder aches every time he rises up for a jumper, held Denver within striking distance.

The Nuggets refused to fold, never allowing Oklahoma City to run away and hide.

“It’s always tough to make a run when you’re down 60,” quipped Adelman, recalling the embarrassment of the lopsided loss in Game 2.

Gordon, the closer whose brought the most juice in this playoff run, stepped up and made a clutch shot from 3-point range to knot the score at 102 with 27 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.

“A.G.,” Porter said, “he must got the angels with him.”

With a chance to win this one at the buzzer in regulation, Jokic’s step-back, 19-foot jumper from the baseline clanked off the rim, pushing the tension into overtime.

Before the extra period began, Jokic plopped himself on the Denver bench, leaned back in his seat, pointed his chin toward the ceiling and cursed to high heaven.

But on the spring evening when Jokic had the worst playoff game of his career, it didn’t matter.

“It’s a culture of just finding a way,” Adelman said.

The Thunder has won the laugher in this series. Denver has risen to the occasion twice under pressure, as the clock ticked toward zero.

If that’s not the definition of a champion’s heart, I don’t know what is.

The Nuggets know how difficult it is to ignore the noise and win in the thunderdome of the playoffs.

Oklahoma City is learning the hard way, one tough lesson from the Nuggets at a time.