LeBron James guides Los Angeles Lakers to win over New Orleans Pelicans

On Sunday to get the No. 8 position in the Western Conference and to make it into playoffs Los Angeles Lakers defeated the New Orleans Pelicans 124-108 with the help of LeBron James scoring 28 points, 11 rebounds, five steals, and 17 assists.

Anthony Davis scored 30 points and 11 rebounds against the team that selected him first overall in the 2012 NBA draft, setting up a conference play-in rematch on Tuesday night in the same venue. But Davis wanted to leave the game in the last minutes and walked uncomfortably back to the locker room.

LeBron James' triple-double was his sixth of the season, and his playmaking helped lead Los Angeles to a dominating performance in the paint, outscoring New Orleans 68-42.  Austin Reaves scored 20 points and D'Angelo Russell added 19 for the Lakers, who won eight of their final 11 regular-season games.

CJ McCollum scored 23 points for the Pelicans, who were coming off a four-game road winning run and welcomed back high-scoring wing Brandon Ingram, but they fell short at home while attempting to secure a No. 6 seed and escape the play-in round.

Meanwhile, Brandon Ingram who was not available for 12 games due to a knee injury scored 13 points, Herb Jones got 18 points and Zion Williamson scored 12 points eight assists, and eight rebounds.

Winner will get into playoffs position 

After Ingram's three-pointer got the Pelicans within 28-24 at the end of the first quarter, the Lakers headed to the foul line due to an apparent officiating error. Official John Goble announced that Los Angeles was wrongfully denied free throws on the Pelicans' second foul in the last two minutes of the quarter. Prince made both, which were officially completed with no time remaining.

Halfway into the second quarter of the game, Austin Reaves's three-pointer gave Los Angeles Lakers 20 points lead as they were leading by 53-33. After LeBron James missing out breakaway dunk Austin Reaves scored another three-pointer to make it 70-53.

Tuesday night's rematch in the same stadium has greater stakes since the winner will receive the seventh seed in the Western Conference playoffs. Meanwhile, the loser will host a play-in game against the winner of the game between the Golden State Warriors (10th seed) and the Sacramento Kings (9th seed) on the same night.