Rick Driscoll kept the angels up late Monday. Even from a mile high, you could just about hear him dancing on Cloud 9, rocking a Carmelo Anthony jersey and waving his harp at Chick Hearn and Wilt Chamberlain.

“He was a huge sports fan,” Denee Driscoll said as she watched her late husband’s beloved Nuggets clinch their first-ever NBA Finals berth from 1,000 miles away at a Ball Arena watch party. “And he would be thrilled right now.”

Rick Alan Driscoll, lifelong Nuggets fan, passed away this past February. He went to eight or 10 games a year, blue and gold through thick and thin. As a member of Iron Workers Local 24, he gave the skyline his hands and Chauncey Billups his heart.

“You know, it’s bittersweet,” Denee said softly before Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals. “But it’s awesome.”

Nuggets 113, Lakers 111? Awesome. A 4-0 sweep? Awesome. ESPN’s talking heads left completely, hopelessly speechless? Awesome.

“I’m so excited,” Denee beamed. “I haven’t had this good a day in three months.”

This was for Rick. For all the Ricks everywhere, the grown men who wept with joy on Chopper Circle, hugging complete strangers as if they were lifelong friends. For the Ricks who hung with a flyover franchise in a flyover town for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. And for the loved ones who went along for the ride.

“I’ve been kind of locking myself in the house,” Denee laughed.

“We’re breaking her out,” her pal Nancy Maldonado explained.

She didn’t want to come,” Bernice Chacon, another buddy, countered. “But Nancy convinced her.”

And what a party. They came by the thousands to celebrate Monday, a $10 ticket to history. KSE officials estimated about 9,500 turned up for Game 4, after roughly 8,500 attended a Game 3 watch party this past Saturday.

Minus the squeaking of sneakers and thump of the basketball, it sure as heck sounded like a home game. The crowd booed Nikola Jokic’s third foul with 32 seconds left in the half. It went bonkers when coach Michael Malone got a technical in response.

PA announcer Kyle Speller shouted catchphrases with his usual 1-2-3 gusto over the audio feed of the ESPN telecast on the jumbotron. And as for the four-letter network, well …

“As a Nuggets fan, they do not show any love,” Chacon grumbled. “It’s all about, ‘How the Lakers are losing,’ and not about how the Nuggets are winning. I love watching TNT. I love it because at least they talk about both (teams).”

Driscoll met Maldonado, who hails from Pueblo, five years ago. She’s been pals with Chacon for more than two decades now, sisters in the dental trade.

“(Former Nuggets coach) George Karl, worked on him a lot,” laughed Bernice, a dental hygienist.

Hours before he hit the game-winner in Tinseltown, the three traded Jokic moments like they were ghost stories ’round the campfire.

“Two games ago, when (Joker) did the fade-away (three), and (Anthony) Davis went to go to block it,” Maldonado laughed, “and he and the coach both had a look on their face like, ‘You can’t do it, you can’t do it.’”

“I love him as a player and as a person and he’s so humble and nothing fazes him,” Chacon added. “He does it because he loves it. I love that. He wants to do good.”

And to think: Denee even didn’t want to come Monday. Not initially. It’s bad enough that her heart’s aching. As a diabetic, the eyes have started to fade, too.

“The last time I was here I could actually see them play,” Driscoll explained. “(But) I love it on the radio because I get every single detail of what’s going on.”

While her husband got busy shaking the clouds, smiling from above, Denee wept. For the Ricks who came. For the Ricks who never got to see this up close. And for her Rick most of all.

“Quite a few tears,” she said. “Quite a few.”

Thank Heaven for Jokic. Thank Heaven for Nancy. Thank Heaven for angels, divine kisses, and the dreams they give flight.

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