Kobe Bryant sprained his ankle late in the second quarter against the Nets on Friday night, but returned in the third and helped the Lakers clinch the top seed in the West.

Pau Gasol led with 36 points and 11 rebounds as Los Angeles defeated New Jersey 103-95, pushing their record to 58-14.

"It was just burning, a lot of burning," Bryant said of the ankle. "I didn't roll it or anything like that. A guy just landed on it, jammed it. It's more a tendon than anything. Just trying to get the tendon to calm down, trying to let it not swell up too much."

The Lakers have now assured themselves home court advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs.

"We're fortunate," coach Phil Jackson said. "We didn't have a whole lot of injuries outside of Andrew [Bynum] this year that limited us. We had some momentum and kept it this year."