The subject behind Jamal Murray’s stretch of balanced play is elementary math, not advanced science.

In the five games since posting the first triple-double of his career — a 17-point, 10-rebound and 14-assist performance against the Pacers on Jan. 20 – Murray is averaging 27.6 points, 4 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game. That includes his 33 points, five rebounds and eight assists in Thursday’s win over the defending-champion Warriors.

“Guys are bringing help when I drive, so I’m just finding guys, and guys are making shots. It’s not rocket science,” Murray said. “I think the way we’re shooting the ball and the amount of drives

and paint attacks we have, it just makes sense.”

The rebounding numbers are in line with his numbers in recent seasons. He posted a career-high 4.2 rebounds in 2018-19 and entered Thursday averaging 4.1 this season. He said those numbers are not much of a concern.

“It’s just tough being in there when everybody’s jumping high as hell, and I didn’t leave the ground yet,” Murray said.

In his first five seasons, Murray never averaged more than five assists. This season, he’s close to recording six per game thanks to the last couple of weeks.

“His greatness is on full display, and I’m proud of him,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.

Murray seems more comfortable and confident attacking on the drive as the season has progressed, and that’s forced defenses into a tough decision. Denver’s starting point guard is too big for some guards to stop one-onone and too athletic for others to stop him from getting to the hoop. But bringing a second defender leaves someone open, and Murray is regularly surrounded by elite shooters. Starting shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-pope was shooting 46.3% from 3 prior to Thursday’s game.

Vlatko Cancar, who started at power forward Thursday, wasn’t far behind at 45.5%, while starting small forward Michael Porter Jr. was at 41.2% heading into the Golden State game. No one’s leaving Nikola Jokic.

“Jok’s bringing a lot of attention, and guys are feeding off of that,” Murray explained.

“We’re not hesitating. We’re making teams pay from 3. Guys are shooting it well.”

Scoring has never been a source of concern, and the third quarter of Thursday’s game showed why. Murray scored 17 of his points on 6 of 13 shooting in the period, including a 3-of-7 mark from 3-point range.

“Once he gets it going, it’s just simple,” Cancar said. “Get him the ball.”

Malone certainly wasn’t going to get in the way of that. During a timeout in the middle of the third quarter, the Nuggets coach decided to keep Murray in for the entirety of the third quarter. It was similar to Tuesday’s game against the Pelicans when Murray made his first three 3-pointers, leading Malone to play Caldwell-pope with the bench.

“There was a timeout, and he thought he was coming out. I said, ‘Nah, man, you’re hooping right now. You’re going to stay in the game.’ That’s the luxury that we have,” Malone said. “Depending on the flow of the game, you can keep Jamal in.”

For as complete as Murray’s game has been in recent weeks, he wasn’t selected to the All-star Game when the reserves were announced a couple of hours prior to tip off Thursday.

While he said that didn’t serve as any additional motivation while playing against Stephen Curry, who was voted in as a starter like Jokic, Malone lobbied for Murray to be in consideration should any guard from the Western Conference not be able to participate.

“Jamal was fantastic tonight,” Malone said.