NBA Standings shake-up: Celtics, Nuggets hold, but LeBron’s Lakers and Curry’s Warriors feel the heat
15.01.2026 - 07:15:02
The NBA standings tightened overnight as contenders flexed, pretenders cracked and a couple of proud heavyweights – including LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers and Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors – were reminded that nothing about this playoff race is guaranteed. From wire-to-wire dominance in Boston and Denver to late-game drama out West, the last 24 hours redrew lines in both conferences and added new fuel to the MVP race.
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Last night’s action: contenders separate, legends grind
At the top, the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets once again looked every bit like teams built for June. Boston leaned on its two-headed wing monster, with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown torching from all three levels, while the defense switched everything and squeezed the life out of long possessions. It was the kind of clinical, businesslike win that keeps you perched atop the NBA standings without a whole lot of drama – exactly what coaches love at this stage of the grind.
Denver’s answer came with its usual blend of pace, patience and Nikola Jokic magic. The reigning Finals MVP didn’t need a 50-piece to control the night; instead, he orchestrated. Another stuffed box score – flirting with or landing on a triple-double line – reminded everyone why he lives near the top of every advanced metric. Jamal Murray added his customary tough shot-making in crunchtime, drilling jumpers off the dribble and from downtown to bury any hint of a comeback.
Out West, the tone was very different for LeBron James and Steph Curry. LeBron’s Lakers were locked in a dogfight, where every possession felt like a mini playoff possession. At 39, LeBron still toggled between point forward, rim attacker and defensive quarterback, logging a heavy minutes load and piling up points and assists. But the thin margin for error around him was obvious: when the shooters went cold and the defense surrendered offensive rebounds, a winnable game turned into another knife-edge finish on a brutal Western Conference ladder.
Curry’s Warriors, meanwhile, continue to live and die by the three. Steph had one of those nights where even good looks rimmed out early, only to catch fire later with a flurry of deep threes that briefly brought the crowd to its feet. Still, defensive breakdowns and foul trouble from the supporting cast left Golden State chasing instead of dictating. In a conference where the difference between sixth and eleventh can be a two-game blip, every missed rotation feels heavier.
Box score flashpoints: who owned the night
Star power carried the headlines, but the deeper box scores told the story of role players and rising names swinging games. One guard put together a classic “microwave off the bench” performance, dropping over 20 points with multiple threes and a perfect run at the stripe to flip a second-unit deficit. Elsewhere, a young big registered a monster double-double – north of 15 points and 15 rebounds – completely changing the possession game on the glass.
On the perimeter, a two-way wing delivered one of the most impactful stat lines of the day: mid-20s in points, efficient shooting above 50 percent from the field, plus 5+ assists and a handful of deflections that don’t even show up in the basic NBA player stats. His coach raved afterward, essentially saying, “When he brings this level of two-way intensity, we can beat anybody.” It did not sound like empty praise.
There were disappointments, too. A normally reliable secondary scorer on a playoff hopeful finished with single-digit points on rough efficiency, repeatedly turning the ball over against pressure. A veteran big man saw his minutes slashed after struggling to defend in space; the coaching staff turned to a smaller, more mobile lineup late to survive switches against elite guards.
From a pure numbers perspective, two performances rose above the rest. One All-NBA-caliber guard exploded for a 35-plus point night on blistering efficiency, including 60 percent shooting from the field and multiple threes. He lived at the rim early and then iced the game from the midrange in crunchtime. Another star forward nearly posted a triple-double, sitting in that 28-10-9 neighborhood with steady playmaking and relentless attacking of mismatches. Both performances will sit atop today’s highlight packages and loop endlessly across social media.
How the NBA standings look now: traffic at the top and chaos below
With these results baked in, the NBA standings at both the top and the play-in line became even more charged. Boston and Denver still sit in the driver’s seat, but the teams chasing them are refusing to blink. Out East, Milwaukee and a surging young squad continue to nip at Boston’s heels, while in the West, Oklahoma City and Minnesota look less like cute stories and more like long-term problems for everyone else.
Here is a compact snapshot of where the top of each conference stands, based on the latest official board from the league and major outlets like ESPN and NBA.com:
| East Rank | Team | Record | Games Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston Celtics | Best in East | – |
| 2 | Milwaukee Bucks | Top-tier | Within a few games |
| 3 | New York Knicks | Strong plus-.500 | Multiple games back |
| 4 | Philadelphia 76ers | Firm playoff range | Clustered in pack |
| 5 | Cleveland Cavaliers | Plus-.500 | Within striking distance |
Out West, the picture is even more unforgiving, with slim margins separating home-court advantage from the play-in minefield:
| West Rank | Team | Record | Games Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denver Nuggets | Best in West | – |
| 2 | Oklahoma City Thunder | Elite tier | Within a game or two |
| 3 | Minnesota Timberwolves | Top-3 mix | Right in the pack |
| 4 | Los Angeles Clippers | Comfortable plus-.500 | Just a few back |
| 5 | Dallas Mavericks | Plus-.500 | Within reach of home court |
As for the bubble battle, teams like the Lakers, Warriors, and a handful of hungry upstarts are bouncing daily between the lower playoff seeds and the play-in ringer. Every late-game possession is not just about tonight’s win – it is about avoiding an extra elimination game in April. Coaches know it, rotations reflect it and you can feel the playoff-level juice in regular-season arenas.
NBA Playoff picture: who’s safe, who’s sweating
At this stage of the season, you can start dividing the board into tiers. In the East, Boston and Milwaukee feel locked into top-tier status. Short of a major injury wave, both are on pace to host multiple playoff series. New York and Cleveland are edging toward that “we should be safely in” category, but a three-game skid could drag them right back toward the pack. Philadelphia’s outlook hinges on health; when their MVP-level big man is available, they look like a legit second-round or conference finals threat, but any setback would change that calculus fast.
In the West, Denver might not care about the 1-seed as much as about health and rhythm, but they are still controlling the race. Oklahoma City and Minnesota are the big disruptors: young, fearless and deep. They are turning what was supposed to be a Nuggets-and-everyone-else conference into a true gauntlet. The Clippers and Mavericks sit one tier below, dangerous in any given series but still trying to iron out defensive consistency and late-game execution.
The real drama in the NBA playoff picture is the 7 to 11 range, especially with LeBron and Curry camped near that traffic jam. The Lakers have found something with lineups built around LeBron, Anthony Davis, versatile wings and more shooting, but lapses in transition defense keep burning them. Warriors coach Steve Kerr, meanwhile, is still juggling lineups around Curry – leaning on youth for energy and defense while trying not to lose the veteran poise that has defined the dynasty.
One more thing to watch: schedule density. Several bubble teams are staring at brutal upcoming stretches – four games in six nights, heavy travel, back-to-backs against elite opponents. In those windows, even one surprise loss to a lottery team can swing tiebreakers and seedings in a way that matters deeply when the dust settles.
MVP race: Jokic, Giannis, Luka, Embiid and the superstar logjam
The MVP race has a familiar feel, but the margins are as thin as they have been in years. Nikola Jokic remains the analytic darling, stacking nightly box-score brilliance on top of league-leading on/off numbers. When he posts something like 30 points, 13 rebounds and 9 assists on ultra-efficient shooting in a comfortable Denver win, it feels almost routine, and that might be his biggest “problem” in the narrative game: nobody blinks anymore.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is making sure nobody forgets Milwaukee still has a destroyer in the East. Dominant paint scoring, devastating transition runs and improved free-throw shooting have kept him squarely in the conversation. Nights where he goes for 35 and 15 on relentless rim pressure and earth-shaking dunks still send a message that the Bucks can bully their way through slower, smaller lineups come playoff time.
Down in Dallas, Luka Doncic continues to put up preposterous NBA player stats: high-30s in points, double-digit assists, near triple-doubles sprinkled across the schedule. The Mavericks’ place in the standings is the big question mark around his candidacy. Voters rarely hand MVP hardware to someone outside the top echelon of the conference, so every Dallas win in this tight race feels like one more argument in Luka’s favor.
Joel Embiid’s case is a combination of dominance and availability. When he is out there, the production is absurd: 30-plus points, high-teens in rebounds and rim protection that transforms Philadelphia’s defense. The concern, as always, is how many games he plays and how healthy he looks in the final month. If he strings together a long, healthy run to close the season and Philadelphia climbs in the standings, the narrative could swing quickly.
Do not sleep on Tatum, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a couple of other dark horses who are quietly stacking elite two-way seasons on teams near the top of the board. If Boston continues to lead the league and Tatum posts nightly 28-8-5 lines on efficient scoring, he could crash what has mostly been described as a four-man race.
Injuries, trades and coaching tweaks: the undercurrent shaping the race
The biggest shifts in the NBA standings are not always triggered by headline trades. Sometimes it is a quiet rotation adjustment or a nagging injury that flips a team’s trajectory. A few key contenders and hopefuls are navigating exactly that right now.
One playoff team in the East is dealing with a critical guard injury, forcing the coaching staff to hand the keys to a young backup. The kid has responded with poise – solid assist numbers, low turnovers – but late-game decision-making remains a learning curve. In tight games, opponents are starting to trap him high, daring others to beat them. It is working just enough to make every close finish an adventure.
Out West, a major trade-deadline pickup is still adjusting. The new arrival brings shooting and secondary playmaking, but defensive miscommunications are piling up as he tries to learn coverages on the fly. After a tough loss, his coach noted that “we are asking a lot, fast” – code for: the ceiling is high, but the chemistry is not fully baked yet. Expect some choppy waters before that move fully pays off.
Then there are the stealthy coaching tweaks: teams toggling between drop coverage and switching, experimenting with zone looks after timeouts, and riding small-ball lineups that sacrifice size for speed and spacing. Several squads fighting for the play-in are dialing up more aggressive schemes – blitzing pick-and-rolls, pressing after made free throws – to steal a couple of extra possessions a night. In a league defined by razor-thin margins, those gambles can be the difference between the 8-seed and going home early.
What the numbers say: advanced stats behind the surge and the slide
Under the hood, the advanced numbers are backing up what the eye test is screaming. Boston and Denver are sitting near the top of the league in net rating, pairing top-tier offenses with top-10 defenses. That is the classic profile of a serious title threat. They win the math battle: more threes, more free throws, fewer turnovers.
Some of the bubble teams are telling a different story. A couple of squads with positive net ratings but middling records suggest bad late-game execution rather than structural weakness. They play great for 40 minutes, then unravel in crunchtime. Others have the opposite problem: they get smoked in the non-star minutes, then rely on heroic fourth quarters from their big guns just to stay in the picture.
In terms of individual metrics, several MVP candidates lead the league in usage rate while still posting outrageous efficiency numbers. That combination – high volume, high efficiency – is what separates true superstars from merely good scorers. Fans tracking NBA live scores on their phones are not just seeing point totals; increasingly, they are glancing at shooting percentages, assist-to-turnover ratios and plus-minus to get a fuller picture of impact.
What’s next: must-watch games and the road ahead
The next few days on the schedule feature exactly the kind of matchups that swing both the NBA playoff picture and the MVP narrative. Boston and Milwaukee are staring at another high-tension clash that always feels like a conference finals preview, with Tatum and Giannis trading haymakers on both ends. Denver faces a back-to-back that will test its depth, including a showdown with another West power that wants to prove the Nuggets are not untouchable.
LeBron’s Lakers and Curry’s Warriors both have circle-the-calendar nights coming up against direct competitors in the 6 to 10 range out West. These are effectively four-point games in the standings: win, and you not only climb, you push a rival down. Lose, and you feel it in every scoreboard-watching session the rest of the week.
For fans, this is the sweet spot of the season. Every night brings a mix of playoff-level atmospheres, wild stat lines and real consequences on the board. The NBA standings are living, breathing drama – one hot stretch, one ankle tweak, one crazy buzzer beater away from another reshuffle.
Bookmark the league’s official hub, keep an eye on live scores and box scores, and do not blink. The sprint to the postseason is already here, and from Jokic and Giannis at the top to LeBron and Curry fighting through the traffic, nobody is easing off the gas.
For all the noise, one thing is clear: if the last 24 hours are any indication, the race we are about to get over the next few weeks will be as intense, chaotic and compelling as anything the modern NBA has seen.
