DENVER — The glimmering Larry O’Brien Trophy that the Denver Nuggets won last June stands sentry outside their locker room at Ball Arena. Inside, there’s a small poster with Jamal Murray’s image next to a collage of NBA champions such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Across the way, Nikola Jokic’s locker is adorned with a showy horse racing ribbon, a reminder of his beloved side hustle.

Surrounded by these victory totems, the defeated Nuggets hung their heads and hardly said a word. Denver’s title defense veered sharply off course Monday during a 106-80 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 2 of their second-round playoff series, a humiliating blowout when Denver fans booed the home team and traveling Minnesota fans serenaded Anthony Edwards with “M-V-P” chants.

As Jokic and Murray made a beeline for the tunnel at the final buzzer, “Wolves in four!” rang out through the mostly empty building. Stunned Nuggets fans, who were incensed by the officiating as the Timberwolves built an insurmountable lead in the first half, had begun quietly shuffling out early in the fourth quarter.

One week after the Nuggets won a thrilling first-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers, they must confront their new, and much darker, reality: They are two losses away from becoming the first reigning champions since the 2012 Dallas Mavericks to have their title defense end with a sweep. While Minnesota is technically only halfway home, its free-flowing offense and suffocating defense left Denver so shellshocked its MVP leader couldn’t muster the energy to feign confidence in a comeback.

“I don’t know,” Jokic said meekly when asked how Denver will respond to its 2-0 deficit. “We will see.”

Murray said nothing, choosing to skip his postgame interview after scoring eight points on 3-for-18 shooting in his second dreadful performance of the series. To make matters worse, the 27-year-old guard threw a heat pack onto the court while play was live in the second quarter, an overt act of frustration that went undetected by the referees but could incur a fine or a suspension for Game 3 on Friday at Target Center in Minneapolis.

With his stars struggling for words or missing in action, Nuggets Coach Michael Malone filled the void by sounding every possible alarm: The Timberwolves “kicked our (expletive)” and “ran us off the floor,” he said, adding that Denver was left “beat up,” “embarrassed in front of our fans,” “disappointed,” “out-coached,” “outplayed” and “exposed.”

“The body language of our guys is not where I think it needs to be,” Malone said. “Can we find a way to believe in each other? It was a very, very quiet locker room. … My focus is rallying these guys to continue to fight. … I’d just ask our fans to stay with us. I know tonight was not a pretty sight. I know there were some boos out there. I understand that. We didn’t play anywhere close to the level that we’ve come to expect from this team.”

There was, it seemed, more than a trace of fear in his pleading. Fear that this could get even uglier.

Red flags first emerged for the Nuggets during their Game 4 loss to the Lakers in the first round: Murray looked bothered by a calf injury, the bench contributed next to nothing, and open 3-point shots didn’t fall.

Then, during the Timberwolves’ tone-setting Game 1 win Saturday, the Nuggets had no defensive answers for Edwards and struggled to generate their signature flow on offense against a long and swarming defense that ranked first during the regular season. Along the way, Malone repeatedly harped on slow starts that have forced the Nuggets to expend significant energy fighting to get back into games.

Even though Rudy Gobert, Minnesota’s defensive anchor, missed Game 2 for the birth of his first child, Denver’s offensive execution went from bad to worse. Murray and Jokic combined for eight turnovers, and the Nuggets committed multiple shot clock violations in the first half because they couldn’t create enough space to attempt a shot.

Minnesota raced out to a 42-22 lead, and Edwards threw down a ferocious open-court dunk to help push the halftime edge to 61-35. Denver never came close to mounting a counteroffensive, as Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, who moved over to center in place of Gobert, scored 27 points apiece in the breezy victory. Edwards celebrated a late 3-pointer with a Michael Jordan-esque shrug and flexed his biceps after the final buzzer.

With their offense stifled and their defense in shambles, the Nuggets lost their composure. Malone came charging across the court to scream at referee Marc Davis, somehow avoiding an ejection. An irate Kentavious Caldwell-Pope pleaded to the officials for more favorable treatment while being outclassed against Edwards. And forward Aaron Gordon, who has been held in check by the Timberwolves’ front line, received a technical foul in the second half for an extended argument with an official during a timeout.

But the biggest emotional explosion came from Murray, who was seated near the end of the Nuggets’ bench midway through the second quarter. Apparently upset after a few no-calls, Murray raised a heat pack above his head and threw it past Davis, the baseline referee, toward the court during a Minnesota offensive possession. After Towns made a layup, Caldwell-Pope retrieved the heat pack and threw it off the court.

Davis confirmed in a postgame statement to a pool reporter that the referees didn’t see the heat pack come from the Nuggets’ bench, adding Murray could have been assessed a technical foul.

“We tried to impress upon (the referees) that there probably aren’t many fans in the building that have a heat pack,” Timberwolves Coach Chris Finch said. “So it probably had to come from the bench, which they found logical. It’s inexcusable and dangerous. I’m sure it was just a mistake and an oversight. I’m sure there was nothing intentional by the officiating at all, but we certainly can’t allow that to happen.”

Incredibly, it might not matter whether Murray is suspended for Game 3. Minnesota’s front-line defenders have bodied Jokic, its wings have clogged his passing lanes, and its guards have hounded Murray up and down the court. The Nuggets’ 80 points were their fewest of the season, and their 34.9 percent shooting was their second-worst mark. Murray’s 3-for-18 shooting was the least efficient outing of his 60-game postseason career. Jokic’s 16 points were his lowest output of this postseason.

Accustomed to bullying smaller opponents, Denver has gotten a bitter taste of its own medicine from Minnesota. Finch said Monday’s effort was “right up there with the best” of the Timberwolves’ defensive showings this season.

“This is a test of our will and our manhood,” Nuggets guard Reggie Jackson said. “We have to hold our ground and own our space. If we do that, we’ll give ourselves an actual chance to win. They punked us. They literally manhandled us. You can’t play Nuggets basketball if you get punked.”

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