PHOENIX >> Ninety-one seconds and seven Suns points into the fourth quarter, Nuggets coach Michael Malone called timeout and waved his two-time MVP back into the game.

Malone usually likes to rest Nikola Jokic for a longer stretch at the start of the fourth, but Phoenix had Kevin Durant and Devin Booker in the game and they were threatening to run away and hide.

“In transition, Cameron Payne, nobody picks him up and he hits a pull-up three,” Malone said. “… We had done such a great job of getting back in the game in the third quarter, but at the start of the fourth, just very lackadaisical and that’s why I called timeout and got Nikola right back in the game.

“That’s the first time in the playoffs I felt like I had to do that where, fourth quarter, team goes on a run, let’s get our MVP back into the game. They got off to a great start and had us on our heels right away.”

It marked the first time this postseason that a team’s been able to force Denver into being the reactor rather than the aggressor.

“That first half, they had us on our heels,” Malone said. “We were counter-punchers.”

It’s not particularly surprising that it came in Game 3. The Suns have more firepower than Denver’s first-round opponent (Minnesota). They had their backs flush against the wall after Denver won the series’ first two games, and they had the benefit of three days’ rest and a raucous home crowd.

Suns coach Monty Williams pressed all the right buttons in the series’ midweek interlude. Payne gave the Suns a hard-charging, downhill presence in relief of an injured Chris Paul (groin). Williams inserted T.J. Warren, Terrence Ross and Jock Landale into his rotation to varying degrees of success. The frequency with which Phoenix turned down ball screens gave Denver trouble getting its defense sorted.

“That was a point of emphasis when they play their pick-and-roll game: Making sure that we’re sending them to coverage so that we can have two defenders there, especially when Kevin Durant is handling the ball or Devin Booker,” Malone said. “Now when they reject (the screen) because we’re up, now we’re down two defenders and now they’re getting downhill into the paint.”

All of which is to say, outside of a big third-quarter charge from 16 down to briefly recapture the lead, the Nuggets were unable to control the tempo and style of Game 3. They were dictated to rather than the other way around.

“I think our level of intensity and our level of focus upped in the third quarter,” Aaron Gordon said. “We came out too lackadaisical and complacent in that first half, not focused.”

Surmised Jokic, “We were just a little bit slow. I don’t want to say sleepy, but they were making the first move and we were reacting.”

Now Denver has seen, if not Phoenix’s best punch, then something close to it. Nobody outside of Booker and Durant scored more than seven points, but those two combined for 86. Nobody outside of those two attempted a free throw, but Durant made 14 of 16.

How do the Nuggets wrestle control of Game 4 and the series back squarely into their possession on Sunday? The answer is simple: Slow down those two even a little bit.

“We know what the problem is and we know who we need to stop, but they’re talented players,” Jokic said. “I always say they’re the two best scorers, probably, in the league right now who can create a shot and who teams can throw a double team or an extra body and they can still go and make tough shots. But I think we had our chances and we believe in what we’re doing and hopefully we’re going to do that a lot better in the game Sunday.”

Easier said than done, of course, but now the Nuggets will try to do what Phoenix couldn’t — earn a split on the road. Doing so would send Denver back home with a 3-1 series lead and a chance for a Game 5 closeout at Ball Arena. Fail, and this series is returning to the desert next week one way or another.

That will make Sunday the first true pressure-packed test for the Nuggets this postseason.

“Definitely play with more of a sense of urgency,” forward Michael Porter Jr. predicted for Game 4. “We realize they can beat us. It’s 2-1 right now, we don’t want to go back (to Denver) 2-2.”

Malone has said for days that nobody expected the Suns to let go of the rope just because they dropped the first two games.

“We’re not down in the dumps,” he said. “I think our guys understand — give them credit, they’re a good team, but we can play a hell of a lot better. Nobody in that locker room thought we were just going to come into the Western Conference semifinals and sweep the Phoenix Suns with the amount of talent they have. It’s one loss. We don’t get too high after the wins, we don’t get too low after the losses. Let’s be honest with ourselves when we watch the film and see what we can do better.

“I think the overriding theme was, to a man in there, I think we all felt we could have played a hell of a lot more physical and aggressive than we did tonight.”