NBA Standings shake-up: LeBron, Curry and Tatum headline wild night in playoff race
07.02.2026 - 17:42:32
The NBA standings tightened again last night as LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum dragged their teams deeper into a ruthless playoff race that already feels like April. Seeds shifted, streaks snapped and the margin for error shrank to a possession or two across both conferences.
[Check live stats & scores here]
LeBron powers desperate Lakers as West race gets nasty
Every Lakers possession right now feels like a referendum on their season, and LeBron James played like he understood the assignment. Attacking downhill, orchestrating from the post and controlling tempo in crunchtime, he once again put Los Angeles on his shoulders in a must-have game that kept them glued to the Western Conference play-in mix rather than falling out of it.
The Lakers’ defense, which has drifted in and out of focus all year, finally strung together stops when it mattered. Rotations were sharper, closeouts were urgent and they swallowed up defensive rebounds instead of giving up second chances. Offensively, LeBron toggled between scorer and playmaker, toggling the pressure on the rim and opening clean looks from downtown for the Lakers’ shooters.
Afterward, the tone in the locker room sounded like a team that knows it has burned through its margin for error. One veteran voice summed it up bluntly: the group cannot keep waiting for May mode; the playoff urgency has to live in every February and March possession if they want the NBA standings to reflect a real threat rather than just a famous brand hovering near the play-in line.
That message matters because the West is unforgiving. One cold week can drop a team from sixth to tenth, and nobody in L.A. is interested in walking the tightrope of a single-elimination play-in game on the road again.
Curry keeps Warriors relevant with vintage shooting bursts
Stephen Curry’s Warriors are still living possession to possession as well, but his shooting remains the great equalizer. Even in a season where Golden State has juggled rotations, dealt with injuries and leaned hard on young role players, Curry continues to tilt defenses the second he crosses half court.
His latest performance was a masterclass in shotmaking under pressure. Defenders face-guarded him off the ball, blitzed his pick-and-rolls and tried to funnel him into help, but Curry kept carving out slivers of space. When he rose from three, the building held its breath. It felt like one of those nights where every splash could swing not just the game, but the entire Warriors narrative.
Golden State’s coaching staff has quietly tightened the rotation around him, leaning more on lineups that can actually defend and rebound to protect those minutes. A team source described the internal conversation as simple: if they clean the glass and limit fouls, Curry will do the rest. The math is still brutal in the West, but the Warriors are at least giving themselves a puncher’s chance to climb back into the heart of the playoff picture instead of hovering at the edge of the play-in.
Celtics flex depth while everyone else scrambles
While much of the league is grinding for seeding, the Boston Celtics feel like they are playing a different sport on some nights. Jayson Tatum did not even need to chase a massive box score to bend the game his way; his two-way control and patience continue to set Boston’s tone.
The Celtics’ offense hummed through their read-and-react sets, zipping the ball side to side until a mismatch appeared. Tatum attacked switches, punished smaller defenders in the mid-post and trusted his shooters when help came early. Defensively, Boston crowded the paint, built a wall against drives and dared opponents to survive a diet of contested jumpers and late-clock heaves.
One assistant coach put it this way after the win: when the Celtics stay locked in on defense and avoid the sloppy live-ball turnovers, they feel like they can reach another gear few teams can match. That is exactly what the NBA standings currently suggest, with Boston sitting comfortably near the top of the East while most contenders trade haymakers below them.
Current NBA standings: top seeds, crowded play-in
The standings board tells the story: a clear top tier, then chaos. Here is a snapshot of how the top of each conference is shaping up, with a focus on the teams driving the nightly drama.
| East Rank | Team | W | L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston Celtics | – | – |
| 2 | Milwaukee Bucks | – | – |
| 3 | Philadelphia 76ers | – | – |
| 4 | Cleveland Cavaliers | – | – |
| 5 | New York Knicks | – | – |
Out West, the same split: a brutal race behind the elite seeds, with the Lakers and Warriors trying to keep their heads above the play-in waterline.
| West Rank | Team | W | L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma City Thunder | – | – |
| 2 | Denver Nuggets | – | – |
| 3 | Minnesota Timberwolves | – | – |
| 4 | Los Angeles Clippers | – | – |
| 5 | Phoenix Suns | – | – |
The dashes are less important than the gaps. In both conferences, just a small cluster of games separates the 4-seed from the play-in. Coaches are already talking about minute management and rest differently, because no one wants to wake up in April staring at an 8-seed path that runs through Boston or Denver.
Front offices are doing their own calculus. Several executives around the league have been clear: if a team is stuck between sixth and ninth by the final week, that might dictate whether they lean heavier into a veteran-heavy rotation or throw younger legs into the fire. The current NBA standings have effectively turned the regular season into a two-month sprint.
Player stats and last-night heroes
Beyond the headline stars, this stretch is where role players and rising names can change a season. Box scores from the last 24 hours were littered with double-doubles, heat-check performances and a couple of borderline career nights that swung games and tiebreakers alike.
One wing delivered a genuine breakout, piling up points on efficient shooting while guarding the opponent’s best scorer for long stretches. Another young guard came off the bench and turned a sleepy third quarter into a run with back-to-back threes from deep downtown and a slick lob in transition. The raw numbers tell part of the story, but it was the timing that mattered: these were runs that flipped the scoreboard and, by extension, tightened or loosened the playoff picture for their teams.
Coaches, of course, downplayed the individual fireworks when speaking afterward, emphasizing ball movement, defense and communication. Yet you could hear it between the lines: finding reliable secondary creators and rebounders right now might be the difference between chasing a 5-seed and sweating through a win-or-go-home play-in.
MVP race: Jokic, Giannis and an outside shot from Tatum
The MVP race has settled into a familiar shape at the top, but the margins remain razor-thin. Nikola Jokic continues to put up outrageous all-around numbers, stacking triple-doubles that would have been headline-grabbing historical outliers a decade ago but now feel like part of his weekly routine. His blend of scoring, rebounding and playmaking keeps Denver’s offense humming even on nights when the supporting cast is merely average.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is still living in attack mode. Nights with 35 points on about 60 percent shooting and a pile of free throws have become routine. When he decides to live in the paint, entire defenses collapse, and the Bucks’ spacing dictates whether they blow teams out or grind through late-game halfcourt sets.
Jayson Tatum sits in the conversation on the strength of winning and two-way impact. His individual player stats might look a tick lighter than the volume monsters, but the Celtics’ dominance at or near the top of the NBA standings gives his case real weight. Coaches around the league privately acknowledge that preparing a game plan against Boston starts with trying to disrupt Tatum’s rhythm, then hoping the rest of the roster has an off night from three.
Others are lurking on the fringes of the ballot, but the prevailing sentiment among scouts and analytics departments is clear: unless there is a major injury or a seismic shift in the standings, this is shaping up to be another year where Jokic, Giannis and Tatum carve up most of the top votes.
Injuries, rotations and what they mean for the playoff picture
The injury ticker continues to shape the narrative almost as much as wins and losses. Several playoff hopefuls are navigating nagging issues with key starters, leading to reshuffled rotations and experimental lineups in real time. A star wing dealing with a lower-body issue sat out the back end of a back-to-back, and the drop-off in on-ball creation was glaring. Without him, his team’s offense bogged down into stagnant isolations and late-clock heaves, a recipe for slippage down the standings.
Elsewhere, a starting center’s absence forced his coach to lean hard on small-ball units. It juiced the offense for stretches, unlocking five-out spacing and quick-trigger threes, but the trade-off at the rim and on the glass was obvious. Opponents hammered the paint and feasted on second-chance points, the sort of hidden possessions that quietly decide playoff seeding.
Coaches keep preaching a next-man-up mentality, but everyone knows the stakes. A two-week injury at this point of the season can flip the entire playoff picture, especially with tiebreakers looming large. Training staffs are walking the line between pushing stars to secure home court and preserving enough health for a deep May or June run.
What’s next: must-watch games and pressure points
The schedule is about to punch even harder. Over the next few days, we get a handful of games that could rewire the playoff race and the MVP conversation at the same time. The Lakers face another measuring-stick matchup that will test whether their renewed defensive effort is real or just a one-night spike. The Warriors stare down a stretch of opponents that will hunt Curry in every action, daring Golden State’s role players to hit open shots and defend without fouling.
In the East, the Celtics and Bucks both face trap games against hungry lower-seed hopefuls who are treating every night like a Game 7 audition. Slip-ups now do not just cost wins; they can alter the entire bracket, reshuffling which contenders collide in the second round versus the conference finals.
Fans tracking the NBA standings should buckle up. This is the stretch where late-game execution, health and depth collide. A single buzzer beater, a surprise 40-piece from a young scorer or one ill-timed injury could swing seeds and rewrite the playoff picture overnight.
If you are trying to sort out who is for real and who is just hanging on, this week will offer answers. Stay locked in, track the live scores, dig into the player stats and do not blink when LeBron, Curry or Tatum step into crunchtime. The margin between comfort and chaos has rarely been thinner.
@ ad-hoc-news.de
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