Nuggets-Hornets Grades: Denver's offense is thriving

The Denver Nuggets bested the Charlotte Hornets 121-104 Monday night at Pepsi Center. Seven Nuggets’ players reached double-figures in points and Gary Harris led the way with a game-high 27.

Here’s how each Nuggets player performed.

Jamal Murray (A) – Murray was effective in 31 minutes against Charlotte despite playing through a nasty thigh bruise that he got Saturday night against the Warriors. He’s not 100 percent but Murray was still able to chip in 18 points, hit four threes and was able to keep Denver’s pace up for much of the night.

***Gary Harris (A+) – Harris paced Denver’s offense in the first quarter with 15 points on five threes. He cooled off from there and posted 12 points the rest of the way. Harris is averaging a team-high 17.6 points per game on the season, again was the highest scorer on the team in January, averaging 20.2 points per game, and is sitting at 22.7 points per game through three February contests.

Will Barton (A) – The Nuggets’ former sixth-man is growing more and more comfortable as a starter with every game. Barton turned in another efficient offensive night, scored 17 points on a healthy 7-10 shooting and has scored at least 15 points in each of Denver’s last three matchups.

Wilson Chandler (B) – Chandler’s sick as a dog right now and labored through 21 minutes against Charlotte. He wasn’t very effective but you have to give him credit for being out there. He was still a plus-11 overall. Chandler asked for a substitution five minutes into the third quarter and didn’t return to the game. He looked beat.

Nikola Jokic (B) – At the center of Denver’s offensive resurgence over its past five games is Jokic, who didn’t put together his best offensive (or defensive) game Monday night but still looked at home finishing with 15 points, 17 rebounds and seven assists. Dwight Howard had his way with Jokic and Denver’s frontline though and scored 15 points on 7-7 shooting in the first half. The Nuggets were able to limit Howard in the second half by throwing double teams his way.

Trey Lyles (B+) – An efficient 11 points for Lyles on 4-8 shooting against Charlotte. Here’s a trend to watch though. Lyles’ three-point shooting is trending downward after he shot better than 38 percent from distance over the first three months of the season. Where will Lyles settle in at in terms of his three-point shot? Probably higher than the 25 percent he’s shooting from distance in the month of February but under the 40 percent barometer he set for himself earlier this year.

Torrey Craig (A) – The 45 days that Craig’s two-way contract allows him to be with the Nuggets for is coming down to the wire. Craig’s played well this year, is an NBA caliber rotation player and Denver wants to sign him to a regular NBA deal but they’d have to free up a roster spot for that to happen. The best way to do that is before Thursday’s trade deadline.

Darrell Arthur (B+) – Right knee soreness held Arthur out of shootaround Monday morning and his status was up in the air for later in the day. But Denver’s veteran presence was still able to play 14 minutes and contributed 10 points on 4-5 shooting.

Emmanuel Mudiay (B+) – Was this the last game Mudiay plays in a Nuggets’ uniform? With the trade deadline on Thursday and Mudiay’s name mentioned in a bevy of trade rumors, it might have been. Never the less, Mudiay has played well over the past couple of weeks, scored 12 points against Charlotte on 5-7 shooting and registered just one turnover.

*** denotes Player of the Game

Denver has a couple off days before jetting to Houston and Phoenix for a back-to-back Friday and Saturday.