SAN ANTONIO – This NBA playoff series doesn’t start until the Nuggets knock San Antonio point guard Derrick White on his keister.

He wants to waltz into the lane for uncontested lay-ups? That’s fine. Slam-dance him to the court with a hard foul, then see if White bounces or splats.

“Our make-up ain’t … grimy,” Denver guard Monte Morris said Friday. He insisted thuggery isn’t in the Nuggets’ nature.

Well, my friend. The way I see it, Denver has two choices:

Get grimy. Or get eliminated from the playoffs, which is no place for polite and courteous Boy Scouts.

The Nuggets are soft. And wily, old San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich knows it.

While Denver management keeps sending video evidence of San Antonio’s moving screens and shots below the belt to the NBA, asking the league to tell the big, bad Spurs to quit being so mean, the message Nuggets coach Mike Malone finally sent to his team on the eve of Game 4 probably should’ve been delivered long before the playoffs began: Toughen up. Get physical. Don’t be afraid to commit a foul that hurts.

“How many times are you going to watch a guy just go to the basket for a lay-up?” said Malone. He was irked not only because White scored 36 points to lead San Antonio’s 118-108 victory in Game 3, but because the former CU Buffs guard penetrated Denver’s defense with impunity on 19 blow-by drives, by Malone’s count.

“Derrick White didn’t feel us (Thursday night). He woke up this morning, probably feeling very spry, because he had the easiest 36 points he’s ever had, and that can’t happen.”

When push comes to shove, is Denver willing to knock White down? The Nuggets are not the Bad Boys. What’s more, much of the violence has been legislated out of basketball, so it would be ill-advised for any team in 2019 to go all Bill Laimbeer on White. It would be self-destructive to fully recreate the havoc wreaked under the basket by those Bad Boys of Detroit 30 years ago, when Malone’s father, Brendan, was an assistant coach for the Pistons.

“This is a really fine line (and) I don’t want anything to be construed as, ‘Heh, we are going to play dirty.’ We’re not a dirty team. We don’t have that mentality. That’s just not who we are and the rules don’t allow that. Thank goodness,” Malone said.

“But you have to be willing to (deliver) a hard foul sometimes, because when a guy gets that comfortable … at some point, it becomes ridiculous.”

San Antonio has bullied its way to 2-1 lead in this best-of-seven series, and along the way, LaMarcus Aldridge has smacked Denver guard Gary Harris in the crotch while big Spurs lug Jakob Poeltl has punctuated one of his illegal screens by sticking out a knee to nail Jamal Murray.

San Antonio is turning the Nuggets into taco meat. Chewing them up and spitting them out. Now, before the Go-Spurs-Go crowd spits out barbacoa to shout protest against a whining scribe from Colorado, let me add: I admire ornery, old Pop and the guys wearing black for not only getting Denver’s goat, but leaving five-day bruises.

At its best, basketball is a beautiful ballet. But what happens in the playoffs is often much rawer, and sometimes ugly. Before leaving Denver for two games in Texas, the naïve Nuggets packed for a picnic rather than a battle.

Denver has to stop fooling around in Game 4, or this series will be over before the Nuggets’ tears dry.

The next time White drives the lane for San Antonio?

“Send a message. Put him on the foul line. Make him earn it,” Malone said.

Does Denver need to play dirty basketball? Heck, no. But do the Nuggets need to show they’re unafraid to get grimy? There’s no other choice.

Knock White down, help him up and greet the Spurs with a smile that shouts:

This fight is just getting started.