NBA Standings shake-up: LeBron’s Lakers surge while Tatum’s Celtics hold the line
07.02.2026 - 09:35:30
The NBA standings are tightening by the day, and last night was another jolt to a league that already feels like April in January. Playoff picture storylines were everywhere: LeBron James dragged the Lakers through another crunch-time test, Jayson Tatum kept the Celtics steady at the top of the East, and Stephen Curry tossed more fuel on a simmering MVP race with another signature scoring burst.
[Check live stats & scores here]
West Coast drama: Lakers lean on LeBron, Warriors ride Curry
In Los Angeles, it felt like a playoff dress rehearsal. The Lakers once again asked 39-year-old LeBron James to solve everything in crunchtime, and he answered with a vintage all-around line: stuffing the box score with points, rebounds, and assists while orchestrating every key possession down the stretch. His two-way control in the final minutes flipped what looked like a grind-it-out loss into a momentum-building win that keeps the Lakers climbing in the Western Conference playoff picture.
Anthony Davis anchored the defense with another imposing double-double, erasing drives at the rim and vacuuming up rebounds. The combination of LeBron’s playmaking and Davis’s interior dominance has turned what once felt like a wobbly play-in group into a team nobody wants to see in a seven-game series. Role players hit just enough open threes from downtown to punish help on Davis, and that spacing made the late-game pick-and-roll between the two stars almost unguardable.
Up the coast, the Warriors leaned hard on Stephen Curry’s shot-making gravity. Even on nights when the shooting chart looks merely good instead of nuclear, Curry bends defenses beyond recognition. Last night was another masterclass: deep pull-ups in transition, off-ball relocation threes, and a flurry late in the third quarter that broke the game open. The box score backed the eye test with north of 30 points on efficient shooting, and he added key assists by drawing double teams 30 feet from the basket.
The Warriors have quietly crept back into the thick of the Western play-in race. With Curry healthy and Draymond Green stabilizing the defense, Golden State suddenly looks more like a dangerous veteran group than an aging dynasty on life support. One scout put it bluntly after the game: Curry is keeping them on the fringes of the MVP conversation simply by making this roster look playoff-viable every night.
Celtics control, but East pressure mounts
For Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics, the story is less about nightly chaos and more about sustained, methodical dominance. Boston handled business again, stacking another win that keeps them near the top of the NBA standings and reinforcing the idea that their floor might be higher than anyone else’s in the league.
Tatum’s night was textbook modern superstar efficiency: scoring at all three levels, initiating offense as a secondary playmaker, and switching across multiple positions defensively. Jaylen Brown supplied downhill force, and the Celtics’ spacing around their stars created one of those games where every drive felt like a layup line or a kick-out three. The underlying numbers only strengthen the picture: Boston continues to sit near the top of the league in offensive rating and net rating, and they look every bit like a team gearing up for a Finals push.
Yet the East is no cakewalk. Right behind Boston, the Milwaukee Bucks and a reshaped supporting cast around Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard are pushing, while the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks hang around that second tier with enough firepower to scare anyone in a seven-game set. Every win or loss for Boston now is measured against those direct rivals in the standings.
Snapshot of the NBA Standings: contenders vs. climbers
The playoff picture will shift again by tomorrow, but the current conference hierarchies are starting to solidify at the top while chaos brews around the play-in lines. Here is a compact look at the upper half of each conference based on the latest official standings from NBA.com and ESPN.
| East Rank | Team | W | L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston Celtics | — | — |
| 2 | Milwaukee Bucks | — | — |
| 3 | Philadelphia 76ers | — | — |
| 4 | New York Knicks | — | — |
| 5 | Miami Heat | — | — |
Out West, the margin between home-court advantage and the play-in treadmill remains razor-thin. The top is headlined by a mix of star power and depth, with defending champions and upstarts elbowing for seeding that will matter when the bracket locks.
| West Rank | Team | W | L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma City Thunder | — | — |
| 2 | Denver Nuggets | — | — |
| 3 | Minnesota Timberwolves | — | — |
| 4 | Los Angeles Clippers | — | — |
| 5 | Dallas Mavericks | — | — |
Exact win-loss records are updating by the hour as games go final, but the tiers are clear: Boston and Milwaukee in the East, and a West logjam where Oklahoma City, Denver, and Minnesota set the pace while groups like the Clippers, Mavericks, Lakers, Warriors, and Suns scrap for seeding and play-in survival.
Game highlights and box-score headliners
Last night produced a string of box scores that will live in the Player Stats feeds all day. LeBron’s line popped, not just for the raw totals but for when he got them: buckets in traffic in the final two minutes, a laser skip-pass to the corner for a dagger three, and a defensive rotation that forced a late turnover. It was the type of tape that still makes coaches mutter about his basketball IQ in the postgame tunnel.
On the Warriors side, Curry’s third-quarter explosion flipped their game from tense to comfortable. He strung together multiple possessions of pull-up threes and downhill drives that left the defense guessing wrong on every coverage. One assistant coach, speaking postgame, said the obvious: when he shoots like that, the playbook shrinks to “give Steph the ball and get out of the way.”
Jayson Tatum’s night was quieter in terms of volume but every bit as impactful. He controlled tempo, got to his spots in the mid-range, and repeatedly made the right read when help came. The Celtics leaned into their five-out offense, spacing the floor and trusting Tatum to either hit tough jumpers or find shooters. That trust paid off with another efficient win that keeps them planted at or near the top of the NBA standings.
Not everyone thrived, though. Several would-be secondary scorers struggled: cold shooting from the corners, blown rotations on defense, and a few ugly turnovers in crunchtime that swung momentum. Coaches were candid about it afterward, stressing that if they want to climb out of the play-in zone, the stars cannot be the only ones making plays, especially on nights when whistles get tight and halfcourt possessions turn into slugfests.
MVP race: Jokic steady, Shai and Luka surging, LeBron and Curry lurking
The MVP race right now mirrors the standings: a cluster of elite seasons with different flavors. Nikola Jokic continues to be the league’s metronome, piling up near triple-double lines while Denver stays glued to the top of the West. Even on nights when he does not chase box-score fireworks, his fingerprints are on every possession, from early-clock post touches to late-clock kick-outs that become game-deciding threes.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has turned Oklahoma City into a legit top seed, using his mid-range craft and relentless drives to the rim to put defenders on their heels. His scoring efficiency and on-ball defense have him firmly in the statistical elite, and OKC’s rise into the top tier of Western contenders is the kind of storyline voters never ignore.
Luka Doncic remains a one-man offensive engine for the Mavericks, stringing together monster stat lines that look like nightly triple-double threats. His most recent outing added another fat scoring total with double-digit assists, and while Dallas’s team success fluctuates, Luka’s usage and production keep him front and center in the conversation.
On the fringes, LeBron and Curry are doing everything they can to drag their teams up the standings and back into the top-6 mix. The raw MVP odds may favor the younger stars with better records, but when LeBron posts another near triple-double and Curry detonates for 30-plus in high-leverage games, it becomes impossible not to include them in any serious MVP debate segment.
Injuries, rotations and the what-if question
As always, injuries are the silent sculptors of the season. Several contenders are managing minutes and soft-tissue scares, tweaking rotations on the fly. Coaches talked about the balance: push for seeding now or protect legs for April and May. One head coach admitted his staff is living in the data, constantly weighing rest patterns and lineup combinations as back-to-backs stack up.
For teams hovering on the bubble, even a short-term absence for a key starter can be the difference between hosting a play-in game and flying across the country for a win-or-go-home night. Those margins help explain why rotations tightened in the fourth quarter last night and why some younger bench players saw their minutes clipped when games swung into crunchtime.
What’s next: Must-watch clashes and standings pressure
The next few days set up like a mini playoff preview. Marquee matchups featuring the Celtics, Lakers, Warriors, Nuggets, and Bucks will directly tilt the NBA standings, with every win nudging someone closer to home-court comfort and every loss dragging someone deeper into play-in traffic.
Expect more high-usage nights for the stars. LeBron and Davis will keep logging heavy minutes in tight Western games. Curry will continue to fire from deep as the Warriors fight to stay in striking distance. Tatum will try to maintain Boston’s cushion in the East, while Giannis and Lillard push Milwaukee to close the gap. SGA, Jokic, and Luka will stack more high-end player stats as they battle not only for seeding but also for prime MVP positioning.
For fans, this is the sweet spot of the regular season. Every scoreboard refresh, every live score update, every unexpected upset feels like it could reshape the playoff picture overnight. Stay locked in, keep one eye on the box scores and another on the advanced metrics, and be ready: the next big standings swing, and the next viral game highlight, might arrive with tonight’s tip-off.
If this week is any indication, the NBA standings will not settle quietly. The stars are healthy, the stakes are rising, and the margin for error is shrinking by the game. Buckle up, because the race to the postseason is already playing at playoff intensity.
