DENVER — They could not shoot him with a blue arrow. He made Ant-Man look like Can’t-Man.

He jitter-bugged Donte DiVincenzo. He drop stepped Ayo Dosunmu. He left Naz Reid in the rearview. Even when he missed shots, he made the Minnesota Timberwolves miserable.

Instead of talking about winning, they resorted to whining.

“Well, the 16 free throws for (Jamal) Murray is a head scratcher,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said.

Really? That was the takeaway after the Denver Nuggets throttled the Timberwolves over the final three quarters in a 116-105 Game 1 victory at Ball Arena?

Finch is a bright man. So it should come as no surprise that he began playing mind games by working the refs. But shouldn’t his guys just work harder guarding Murray without making contact?

“We played really good defense on him I thought. He initiates the contact, spills away and then he gets rewarded for it,” Finch said. “And (Nikola) Jokic does the same thing.”

Oh, here we go again.

Complaining about postseason whistles is like The Masters: a spring tradition unlike any other.

Word of the quip clearly had filtered into the Nuggets’ locker room before they met the media. Coach David Adelman provided a defense of Murray without being asked.

“He is special. He drew a lot of fouls. Because he got fouled,” Adelman said. “A lot.”

Coaches go to the podium and become the heckler in the bleachers, lobbing shots over foul shots. The motivation, left unsaid, is two-fold. Get into the officials’ ears. And try to get into a player’s head, in this case, Murray.

The chatter did not test Murray’s patience. More like his intelligence.

“I thought I got fouled on every single one of them. I don’t know what everybody is talking about,” Murray said. “They were real fouls.”

And the friction between these teams remains genuine.

There were multiple technicals. Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels soured a solid performance with a bush league push of Jokic in the back. Aaron Gordon provided a death glare to multiple Timberwolves in the subsequent scrum, suggesting he was ready to end anyone who took another cheap shot at the Nuggets’ star.

“It was physical,” said Jokic, who had as many turnovers (three) as points with four minutes remaining in the first half and finished with a triple-double. “There were ups and downs, runs. Whenever we play them, it’s always interesting.”

What made the opener fascinating is that it cemented how much Murray has evolved this season.

Nuggets fans have been waiting for this. Last time, the Nuggets faced the Timberwolves in a playoff game in Denver, he threw heating pads onto the court.

Saturday, he was running hot. And still causing trouble when he was not.

In a season that started with a challenge to prove he was an All-Star, Murray continues to make critics and opposing coaches look like they are full of it.

No more Bubble Jamal. Or playoff Murray. No delineation needed. He is just Jamal Murray, a soon-to-be All-NBA player who showed the Timberwolves why in a performance that was oddly beautiful.

“He has a lot of responsibility with a lot of different people guarding him. They are holding onto his jersey. This is a challenge,” Aldeman said. “He is so mentally strong. He fights through it.”

Hold your nose, Nuggets fans. JM became SGA. And it was glorious.

All of the grousing about reigning Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander centers on his ability to turn the free-throw line into his own Airbnb.

Saturday, Murray gets a fair whistle and now suddenly he is gaming the system? Come on.

Murray dropped a pair of 50-piece games this season. He attempted five free throws in the first, and six in the last. He plays ethical basketball.

Any other assertion is a misconception. Or desperation (Looking at you coach Finch).

The Timberwolves ran multiple defenders at Murray. They blitzed him when Jokic was in the game. He failed to make a single 3-pointer, missing eight in all. And he finished with 30 because he set a career high in attempts (16) and makes (16) from the charity stripe.

“Irrelevant,” said Murray, when asked if he changes his game based on who is guarding him. “Somebody is chasing me. Somebody’s going to push me. And I get a screen. I score.”

Murray made three free throws in the first quarter to keep the Nuggets tethered after a miserable 6 for 22 effort from the field. He converted eight in the second quarter and Denver drew even. And he drained five more after halftime, showing his improvement after failing to ice two games earlier in the season.

“Jamal is amazing. One of the best free-throw shooters in the game,” Jokic said. “When he’s aggressive, going to the rim and the ball is in his hand a lot, we are wholly confident he is going to make those (foul shots).”

He came to life beyond dead-ball moments. When the Nuggets were hanging on without Jokic, Murray sprang loose for a trademark one-handed floater in the third quarter.

And his most important shot, like all his 3s, was a miss. With 1:58 remaining, Murray retrieved a loose ball near half court and heaved a 43-footer as the shot clock expired.

“I was trying to make it,” Murray said.

He did not need it to go in. Just click the rim. As the Timberwolves began transfixed watching the ball, Bruce Brown, who provided a Red Bull jolt in the second quarter on both ends of the floor, grabbed the rebound. He found Murray. And he whipped a one-handed dime to Gordon.

Instead of Minnesota having the ball, down 106-101, the Nuggets led by eight.

That was it. There was no more fight left. The Nuggets won a game that was more paint-by-numbers than Picasso.

It was grimy. Ugly. And it was because of Murray.

Cry wolf somewhere else, coach. Nobody is buying it.

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