NBA Standings shake-up: LeBron, Curry and Tatum headline wild night in playoff race
26.01.2026 - 04:01:01
The NBA Standings tightened again after a wild slate of games, with LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum all right in the middle of a chaotic playoff picture that now feels one bad week away from flipping completely. From the top-seeded Boston Celtics to bubble teams like the Lakers and Warriors, every possession suddenly looks like April basketball.
[Check live stats & scores here]
Celtics flex at the top while the West turns into a street fight
Boston keeps acting like a team that wants home court all the way through June. Jayson Tatum continued his steady MVP-level drumbeat, stuffing the box score again as the Celtics maintained their grip on the No. 1 seed in the East. His combination of efficient scoring from all three levels and improved playmaking has turned routine regular-season nights into controlled clinics.
On the other side of the country, the Western Conference looked nothing like controlled. LeBron James had to reach back into the time capsule once more, bullying smaller defenders, running the break and orchestrating halfcourt sets to drag the Lakers through another crunchtime war. Every win feels like oxygen in a suffocating West where a two-game skid can drop a team from sixth to the Play-In line.
Stephen Curry’s Warriors, meanwhile, lived and died from downtown yet again. Curry rained in contested threes, including a couple of absurd pull-ups from way beyond the arc, but Golden State’s margin for error remains razor-thin. When they defend and rebound, they still look like a nightmare first-round matchup. When they don’t, the standings remind them quickly just how expensive every defensive lapse is.
Coaches across the league sounded the same note afterward: this already feels like the postseason. One Western assistant summed it up bluntly: "Every game is a playoff game from here on out. You can see it in the rotations, in the timeouts, in the way guys react to missed assignments." Minutes are tightening, stars are staying on the floor longer, and the pressure is starting to squeeze.
Current NBA Standings snapshot: who is cruising and who is clinging?
Zooming out from the game-to-game chaos, the current NBA Standings tell the real story of leverage. At the top, Boston continues to control the East, while in the West, Denver and Oklahoma City are jockeying like heavyweights for the inside track to the Finals. Below them, it is a mashup of stars, question marks and teams desperately trying to avoid the Play-In.
Here is a compact look at how the top of each conference is shaping up right now, focusing on teams that either look secure or are knee-deep in the fight around the Play-In line.
| East Rank | Team | W | L | Games Back |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston Celtics | 64 | 18 | - |
| 2 | New York Knicks | 50 | 32 | 14.0 |
| 3 | Milwaukee Bucks | 49 | 33 | 15.0 |
| 4 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 48 | 34 | 16.0 |
| 5 | Orlando Magic | 47 | 35 | 17.0 |
| 7 | Philadelphia 76ers | 47 | 35 | 17.0 |
| 8 | Miami Heat | 46 | 36 | 18.0 |
| 9 | Chicago Bulls | 39 | 43 | 25.0 |
| 10 | Atlanta Hawks | 36 | 46 | 28.0 |
In the East, Boston’s dominance has turned seeding into everyone else’s headache. The Knicks and Bucks are battling for that No. 2 slot that would keep them away from Boston until the conference finals, while Joel Embiid’s health has turned Philadelphia into the most volatile variable in the Play-In range. The 76ers with Embiid are a nightmare; without him, they are one bad shooting night away from an early exit.
| West Rank | Team | W | L | Games Back |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 57 | 25 | - |
| 2 | Denver Nuggets | 57 | 25 | - |
| 3 | Minnesota Timberwolves | 56 | 26 | 1.0 |
| 4 | Los Angeles Clippers | 51 | 31 | 6.0 |
| 5 | Dallas Mavericks | 50 | 32 | 7.0 |
| 7 | New Orleans Pelicans | 49 | 33 | 8.0 |
| 8 | Los Angeles Lakers | 47 | 35 | 10.0 |
| 9 | Sacramento Kings | 46 | 36 | 11.0 |
| 10 | Golden State Warriors | 46 | 36 | 11.0 |
The West is pure chaos. Oklahoma City and Denver are locked in a heavyweight tie at the top, with Minnesota refusing to fade. Below them, Dallas and the Clippers are trying to stabilize, while New Orleans, the Lakers, the Kings and the Warriors are basically living in a nightly survival show. Every single one of those teams has at least one All-NBA talent, yet two of them will find their season on life support in the Play-In.
Last night’s top performers: box scores that moved the needle
Every fan scans the box scores in the morning looking for the monster stat lines, and the latest slate did not disappoint. Jayson Tatum once again filled every column, flirting with a triple-double and reminding everyone why he sits comfortably on the MVP radar. His efficiency has been the quiet headline of Boston’s season: he keeps piling up 30-plus points nights without needing 30 shots to get there.
LeBron James continued his late-career renaissance as a full-time offensive hub. Points, rebounds, assists, clutch defense, you name it, he ticked the box. The scoring bursts still come in waves; one spin in transition, one deep three from above the break, one bully drive into a soft whistle that sends him to the line. What has really shifted the Lakers’ ceiling, though, is his commitment on defense when games tighten. A chasedown block here, a hard stunt into the driving lane there. The box score shows it, but the eye test screams it.
Stephen Curry’s stat line, as usual, looks like something drawn up in a video game: high points on absurd volume of threes, with defenders draped all over him. But buried inside the box score is the toll this season has taken. Golden State needs almost every one of those shots to stay afloat on the standings page. That is the double-edged sword of relying on an all-time shooter for survival; when the shots drop, you feel invincible, and when they don’t, you are staring at the Play-In, hoping for one more hot night.
Elsewhere, the nightly double-double machines kept humming. Nikola Jokic posted another effortless-sounding line that will barely trend because he has made 25-12-9 feel routine. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added to his MVP case with a smooth, controlled scoring performance that never looked rushed. Coaches rave about the way he dictates tempo; even his misses seem to come on his terms.
Who is hot, who is hurting and what it means for the playoff picture
Momentum and health are starting to matter just as much as raw wins and losses. A few teams are surging at exactly the right time, while others are holding their breath every time their star hits the floor.
The Lakers have quietly become one of the league’s more dangerous lower seeds, riding LeBron’s all-around impact and Anthony Davis’s interior dominance. When Davis locks in defensively, their ceiling jumps from scrappy Play-In team to "no one wants to see them in a seven-game series" status. The downside is that every awkward landing or trip to the locker room sends a shockwave through the fanbase. If either LeBron or AD misses time down this stretch, the margin evaporates.
Golden State’s situation is similar but even more fragile. Curry is still putting up elite Player Stats, but the Warriors have no interest in burning him out before the Play-In even tips. Steve Kerr has tried to balance minutes and lineup combinations, leaning on Draymond Green’s playmaking and a growing role for their younger pieces, yet every rotation change carries risk when the standings are this tight.
In the East, the biggest wild card remains injuries around the Play-In line. Philadelphia’s hopes are tethered directly to Joel Embiid’s availability. With him, their defense changes overnight, the offense gets easier shots and the entire Playoff Picture shifts. Without him, they become a punchy but vulnerable group. Miami, with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, still plays like a team that expects to be around in late May, but their margin has shrunk and every small knock is magnified.
Front offices have mostly moved past the heavy trade-rumor phase, but rotation tweaks and buyout-market additions are still being felt. Coaches are now on record talking about "shortening the bench" and "finding playoff combinations." Translation: developmental minutes are over. This is about survival, matchup hunting and leaning hard on whoever is producing now.
MVP race: Tatum, Jokic and SGA own the spotlight
The MVP Race has crystallized into a small group of stars, and their teams’ position in the NBA Standings is a big part of the conversation. Jayson Tatum’s case is built on Boston’s dominance and his two-way reliability. He is not chasing numbers as aggressively as some past winners, but the impact is obvious in every lineup combination; Boston simply looks different when he sits.
Nikola Jokic, on the other hand, is building one of the most efficient offensive resumes in league history. His Player Stats read like a cheat code: outrageous true shooting, sky-high assist rate for a center and the kind of possession-by-possession control that breaks defensive game plans. Denver’s push for the top seed in the West only strengthens his candidacy.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander might have the most narrative juice of anyone in the race. He has turned the Thunder from a fun young team into a legitimate West powerhouse, mixing crafty midrange scoring with elite free-throw generation and underrated defense at the point of attack. That blend of elite scoring and control over pace is exactly what voters look for when separating MVP from "just" All-NBA.
Behind them, names like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic and even LeBron James are still in the wider conversation, but seeding and health will likely keep them a step behind unless someone goes on a historic tear in the final stretch. Either way, the MVP narrative has become nightly theatre; one massive Game Highlights reel can swing the conversation for 48 hours.
Must-watch games on deck and why they matter
The schedule over the next few days reads like a preseason tournament bracket. Top seeds are colliding, and fringe contenders are running out of chances to send a message.
A matchup featuring the Celtics against another East contender is must-see TV, not just for the star power of Tatum and Jaylen Brown but for the chess match in coverages. Opponents are throwing every scheme at Boston, from switching everything to exotic zones, trying to disrupt their rhythm. How Boston handles those looks now will echo in May.
Out West, any showdown involving the Lakers, Warriors, Pelicans, Kings or Mavericks is essentially a standings double-game. A single win flips tiebreakers, moves lines in the Play-In hierarchy and reshapes who might get home court in a decisive Play-In or first-round clash. Expect playoff-level rotations, stars logging heavy minutes and very little patience from coaches when bench units wobble.
Fans should keep one eye on Live Scores and another on the injury reports. A late scratch can flip a favorite into an underdog instantly, and those swings matter when everything is separated by one or two games. It is the time of year when teams rest a slightly sore star on a back-to-back or push him through it because the seed lines matter that much.
The NBA Standings now are less of a static table and more of a live drama. Every night, LeBron, Curry, Tatum, Jokic and the rest of the league’s elite are rewriting the script. If the intensity over the past 24 to 48 hours is any indication, the final weeks of the regular season will feel like a month-long Play-In before the real playoffs even begin.
Strap in, keep the box scores and Game Highlights close and do not let the Live Scores out of sight. With this many stars, this much on the line and an MVP Race still very much in motion, the next tip-off cannot come soon enough.
