DENVER • The Joker did the funniest thing Monday night.

Nikola Jokic played an entire NBA game, 34 minutes of action, and never made me laugh. Never handed the ball to an opposing player who was out-of-bounds. (Love that one.) Never got mad at a ref then raced over to apologize because he said a mean thing.

Goodness gracious. What’s happening here? Right when you figure 2020 has run out of curveballs, here comes the oddest detour imaginable: Is our beloved Joker all business?

“It’s incredible what he can do,” wingman Jamal Murray said. “And he’s so calm about it.”

Not complaining, either, or surprised. Nothing should be a surprise with Jokic after he carried the Nuggets to a Western Conference semifinal and final — at the ages of 24 and 25. What threw me for a loop as Jokic picked apart the Rockets at Ball Arena in a 124-111 win was something else: Jokic was the best player in a game with James Harden, and he expected to be. Jokic simply decided the Nuggets would win.

This is all good news, by the way. Better than the Nuggets’ first 0-2 start in seven years. Better than an offseason that threw them for a loop when Jerami Grant decided Detroit would be a better place to live than Denver. Nobody’s ever said that before. Grant’s the first.

This seriousness from Joker is not a first, but it’s usually reserved for the postseason. This time he’s locked in from the jump.

As he checked out of the game with about 5 minutes left, Jokic found all 29 people around the Nuggets bench and hit ‘em with a fist bump. They should be the ones hugging him. Jokic had 19 points and 12 rebounds in carving up the Rockets, who play without a true center, yet Jokic preferred to pass — a career-high 18 assists. He’s even better than last you saw him.

“Just trying to find the open guy,” is how he explained an incredible performance. “They made all the shots, and they were in the right spots. It’s easy for me when somebody’s open.”

The Nuggets got their first win in a way you’re going to see in a lot of their wins this season — with Joker playing at a level we’ve never seen from a Nugget. His opening stretch suggests a man who knows the support around him isn’t as strong as it has been in recent years — not yet, anyway. Plus, I’d imagine outplaying Paul George and Kawhi Leonard in a playoff series is a decent lift for a man’s confidence.

Elsewhere, the Nuggets got some figuring out to do. Malone still doesn’t trust 22-year-old Michael Porter Jr. The second time Porter fouled Harden on a 3-pointer, I thought Malone might take off and go scrape the snow off his car just to cool off for a minute. Boy, was he mad at MPJ.

The little things, the body language, they’re easy to notice when there are no fans in the building. And I couldn’t help but look around at the empty seats and feel awful for Nuggets fans, who could be locked out from witnessing the all-time Nikola Jokic season that’s about to unfold — both in person and with Comcast vs. Altitude. It’s not right. You deserve better, and for as long as the cable spat goes on the Nuggets will lose both valuable converts and longtime fans.

And this is going to be an all-time Nikola Jokic season. I’m talking MVP-level stuff here. Shoot, the way he’s locked in, it’s not crazy to think Joker could average a triple-double this season, and that would be an MVP-level season.

He’s averaged 24 points, 12 rebounds and 14 assists through three games. Never looked better. If there’s a prized free agent the Nuggets wish to recruit, they should send him tape of Jokic on Monday. And if that guy watches Jokic zip the ball around and still doesn’t want to play here in Denver, you didn’t want him away.

“It’s unbelievable, the things that he can do, the way he reads the floor, reads defenses,” Paul Millsap said.

The Nuggets haven’t been crisp in Week 1. Not terrible, not time for panic, but not crisp. The Kings stole one, the Clippers crushed them in one. But where there’s a Joker, there’s a way — even if he’s Mr. Serious Basketball Man now. Jokic’s defining stretch unfolded over three possessions: assist to Porter, assist to Paul Millsap, steal off Harden. Jokic didn’t score and turned a six-point lead into a game-over lead. He had a triple-double by the third quarter. He was Magic Johnson in the way he controlled the game. Amazing to watch — still, after five years.

A couple of months ago I asked Nuggets scouting director Jim Clibanoff for his favorite part of Joker’s game. “His brain,” he said. Monday was Joker’s 43rd triple-double. He’s 25. That brain’s still learning.

With a hat tip to Nathan MacKinnon and Nolan Arenado, Jokic is the brightest star in Denver sports right now. And to equal the Nuggets’ march to the Western Conference finals last season, there’s one more Joker these Nuggets will need to experience: MVP Joker.