(Basketball news) The Los Angeles Lakers made it three wins in a row as they routed past the Houston Rockets 134-109. For the Lakers, Anthony Davis scored 40 points, LeBron James had 18 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds to tie Jason Kidd for fourth place with his 107th triple-double while Rui Hachimura scored 20 points and had a season-high 12 rebounds as Austin Reaves scored 16 points and Malik Beasley scored 13 points off the bench.

For the Rockets, Alperen Sengun notched his third straight double-double with 18 points and 15 rebounds, Jalen Green scored 24 points and Kevin Porter Jr. chipped in 20 points. The Lakers (40-38) moved two games over .500 and into a tie for seventh with the New Orleans Pelicans in the Western Conference with four games to go. Los Angeles has won six of its last seven games and owns the tiebreaker over the Pelicans.

“We just want to put ourselves in the position to compete for a championship,” James said. “It’s a journey and obviously we don’t have as much chemistry as a lot of other teams that have aspirations to win a championship, but we’ve been building over the last month or so

“We always say we want to get stronger as the season gets longer and be playing our best basketball at the right time,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “Well, the time is definitely right and everybody’s in a good rhythm starting with (Davis) first and foremost. He understands wholeheartedly what we need him to do and he’s coming out and trying to do that.”

“I’m in a great rhythm, feeling good,” Davis said. “Feel like I’m back to myself before the injury. We are all playing well. The guys are making it easy for me.”

“It was definitely precautionary,” Ham said of sitting Russell for the second half. “He could have continued the game if we needed him to. The bodies we have available to us now, we just didn’t want to risk it.”

“It was definitely precautionary,” Ham said of sitting Russell for the second half. “He could have continued the game if we needed him to. The bodies we have available to us now, we just didn’t want to risk it.”

The Denver Nuggets just about edged the Golden State Warriors as they beat them 112-110. For the Nuggets, Jamal Murray scored 26 points and blocked Klay Thompson’s 3-point attempt in the final seconds as Michael Porter Jr. had 29 points and 11 rebounds and Aaron Gordon added 13 points and 10 rebounds.

For the Warriors, Thompson led the scoring with 25 points and Stephen Curry scored 21, but struggled from the field as he missed his first five shots from behind the arc and finished 2 of 14 from deep. Denver (52-26) moved within a game of securing home-court advantage in the Western Conference. A victory in the final four games or one loss by Memphis will give the Nuggets the No. 1 seed for the first time in franchise history.

“I love the fact we’ve been in first place since the middle of December, but this is all geared towards the postseason and how we perform,” coach Michael Malone said. “I know when the season is over, that’s how we’re going to be judged.”

“He’s entitled to those,” coach Steve Kerr said. “He’s had such an incredible year and has played so well and has done so much for us. Just a tough night.”

“Once it starts going to Klay, I’m like, ‘I gotta go, I gotta go,'” Murray said. “You know he’s not going to miss two in a row ,so I jumped as high as I could and got a piece of it.”

Also read: NBA: Lakers for the first time move above .500 while Warriors win against Spurs