You’re not going to sweep your way through the playoffs. No one has — nor likely ever will — go 16-0 en route to an NBA title.

Eventually, you run into an opponent that shoots the ball extremely well for a night or gets every bounce to fall its way.

Or — as was the case with Minnesota on Friday — sometimes you’ll lay a goose egg, as was the case in the Wolves’ 117-90 loss to the Denver Nuggets in Game 3 at Target Center. Minnesota leads the series 2-1.

For the first time in these playoffs, Minnesota was not the aggressor. It didn’t set any type of tone. It wasn’t the hardest-playing team on the floor. It didn’t move the ball nor bodies.

Minnesota looked far more like the team that got blitzed in its regular season finale by Phoenix than the one that KO’d each of its opponents in its first six playoff contests.

Game 4 is set for 7 p.m. Sunday in Minneapolis. That contest is suddenly imperative. The series is now guaranteed to head back to Denver for a Game 5, the question is whether it will do so at 2-2 or with Minnesota sporting a shot to clinch the series.

The Target Center crowd will surely be rocking for that one, as it was at the start of Game 3 on Friday. The building was jumping prior to the pregame tip. Loud chants of “Wolves in four” echoed through the arena during the team’s pregame hype video.

But the roars were muted throughout the ensuing 48 minutes of gameplay. There wasn’t much to cheer for. Denver was up eight after the first quarter and never looked back from there.

Denver led by 15 at the break and 27 after three.

Jamal Murray — who was awful in the first two games in Denver, both with his play and response to adversity — was the best player on the floor Friday. The guard finished with 25 points on 11-for-21 shooting, hitting a number of tough shots that rendered Minnesota’s generally shutdown defense moot while also tallying five assists and three steals.

Minnesota’s offense was non-existent. Through the first two games, the Wolves moved brilliantly without the ball and shared the rock, which led to a number of easy looks.

On Friday, there was no perimeter movement. Denver’s defensive intensity was heightened in what was effectively a must-win game for the Nuggets, but Minnesota made Denver’s job easy.

Friday marked the worst Minnesota has played against the defending champs all season. The Wolves started to unravel late, piling up technical fouls in a complete role reversal from Game 2.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker was upset about a no call late, so the guard got into the official’s face to get a technical foul, then punched a chair on his way to the tunnel. He did return to the bench for the game’s closing minutes.

Minnesota’s task now is to make sure it looks far more like the team it has been all postseason on Sunday than the one that flopped on Friday. Because if both teams compete and execute at the level they did in Game 3, the Nuggets will win every time.

Perhaps Minnesota’s urgency was lowered after handling the Nuggets twice in Denver and returning home with endless amounts of local and national praise. The Nuggets looked dead in Game 2. Perhaps the Wolves thought they’d roll over.

They should’ve known better. There is no excuse for such a mentality on Sunday.

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