Jamal Murray's surge has propelled Nuggets' win streak

The Denver Nuggets won their ninth straight game Thursday night, beating the Charlotte Hornets, 129-115. Murray scored 34 points one night after going for 55 in a 132-121 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. 

During the Nuggets' win streak, Murray is averaging 27.1 points while shooting 55.7% from the field and 44.2% on three-pointers. He's getting 6.5 assists against just 1.5 turnovers.

Nikola Jokic is consistently awesome for the Nuggets, but Murray's return to his scoring form has made the three-time MVP even deadlier. On Thursday, Jokic had nine assists, and five of them went to Murray. Four of those turned into three-pointers.

The Nuggets have a talented roster, but their biggest weakness on offense is three-point volume. They're third in the NBA in three-point percentage but last in attempts. Murray's shot-making is crucial, especially from long-range.

He started the season slowly, shooting 32.6% on three-pointers for the first two months and scoring just over 18 points per game. Then, Murray got up to 22 PPG in December, 21.3 PPG in January and 26.6 PPG so far in February, a month where his team is undefeated. His three-point percentage for the season is up to 38.6%.

The improvement might simply be due to Murray getting healthy. He had a disappointing playoffs and Olympics while battling a calf strain and an ankle injury. Now, he's running and jumping much more comfortably right as the Nuggets are putting it together for a stretch run.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have effectively locked up the West's top seed, but the Nuggets are poised to earn home-court advantage against everyone else. The next step comes as they try to win 10 straight for the first time in the Michael Malone era in Denver, facing the fifth-place Lakers on Saturday — a team that Murray has routinely dominated in the playoffs.

Regular-season Jamal Murray is starting to play like playoff Jamal Murray. That's bad news for the Western Conference and bad news for the Lakers on Saturday.