Whoa, Nelly. Goodness gracious, these Nuggets are bodacious.

They’re as spicy as serrano peppers and have punchable faces. Their quest for the first NBA championship in franchise history has only just begun, but it’s already getting hot in here.

“Oh, I don’t mind spicy … I expect spicy,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said Sunday, before Denver went out and crushed Minnesota 109-80 to open the playoffs.

Hey, T-Pups. Better run home with your tail between your legs. You don’t have enough dawg to stay in this fight.

What makes these Nuggets different from all the teams that have fallen short in pursuit of championship dreams is their sassy nature. Basketball is a game of beauty, but champions have a take-no-guff attitude personified by bad dudes with nicknames like Dennis “Worm” Rodman or demeanors more irritating than Draymond Green.

“We’re fighting for something special,” Malone said. “And we know that to get to an NBA championship, you have to win a lot of games — 16 — against really good teams.”

One down, 15 to go. But let’s not get carried away.

These T-Pups? They’re merely a warm-up for more serious fights ahead against Kawhi or KD or Steph or LeBron.

OK, maybe a best-of-seven playoff series can’t be won in a single game.

But it’s only a matter of time now before our old pal Tim Connelly and Minnesota head back to the frozen tundra, eliminated from the NBA playoffs and with time to finally take down those Christmas lights that have been hanging from the gutter since Thanksgiving and go fishing on a long summer vacation.

Connelly, who left his cushy front-office job with the Nuggets to build a roster in Minnesota designed to beat center Nikola Jokic, has twin towers in the Twin Cities in the form of 7-footers Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns. But put Gobert and Towns together, and they are maybe half as good as Joker.

“We’ve got to handle the problem,” T-Pups coach Chris Finch said, “and the problem is Jokic.”

In Game 1, with Minnesota switching and swarming Jokic with different defenders, sometimes from one Denver offensive possession to the next, the two-time MVP was less than spectacular, producing 13 points, 14 rebounds and six assists before fouling out after only 28 minutes on the floor.

But maybe what was most encouraging about this victory were the signs Jokic won’t have to carry his teammates to all 16 victories in order to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Guard Jamal Murray, playing his first postseason game since the NBA bubble at the height of the pandemic, scored 24 points after allowing his heart rate to slow from what he admitted was an adrenaline rush.

With the defense of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown, these Nuggets are spicy.

Heck, at times, they can be downright disagreeable.

For example: Denver rookie Christian Braun has a face you want to punch.

Hey, Kyle Anderson. Am I right or am I right?

During a little kerfuffle during the third quarter, when the Nuggets blew out Minnesota with a 32-14 run, Braun got under the skin of Anderson by stubbornly refusing to let the Minnesota forward launch a free jump shot after a referee’s whistle blew the play dead.

“No extra reps,” said Braun, explaining why he cupped the basketball before it could leave Anderson’s hand.

Getting his practice shot stuffed caused Anderson to go haywire, in an effort to bully Braun with his elbows and send a message to the Nuggets in the way a beaten hockey team wants to rumble. Locked in a vise grip of Braun, he got spun and lost a macho do-si-do.

As the crowd in Ball Arena went WWE wild, Anderson stumbled near midcourt, nearly falling flat on his face.

He got shut down, stared down and laughed at by a rookie who’s bolder than a Casa Bonita cliff diver.

Oh so very spicy, don’t you think?

“I think it’s really important, Kiz,” Malone explained to me prior to tip-off of Game 1, “that we have that mindset of a hit-first mentality and sending a message.”

The Nuggets broke a nasty habit against Minnesota. In five straight playoff series, Denver had dug itself a hole by dropping the opening game.

This time, they took care of business, in the no-nonsense, no-guff-allowed way that champions do.

These T-Pups? Merely a warm-up.

These Nuggets? They’re spicy.

Buckle up for a wild ride in Ball Arena. It’s about to get real hot in here.

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