NBA Standings shake-up: LeBron’s Lakers climb, Tatum’s Celtics hold line as MVP race tightens
24.01.2026 - 22:17:43
The NBA Standings just got another jolt. With LeBron James pushing the Lakers up the Western ladder, Jayson Tatum steadying the Celtics at the top of the East, and Stephen Curry trying to drag the Warriors deeper into the Play-In mix, the playoff picture tightened across the league over the last 24 hours.
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Every night at this point of the season feels like April basketball. Rotations shrink, defensive intensity spikes, and every possession could swing the NBA Standings by a line or two. Thursday’s slate did not disappoint: statement wins at the top, nervy escapes in the middle, and desperation hoops down in the Play-In lane.
Game recap: Stars carrying battered contenders
Start with LeBron James, because once again the 39-year-old dictated the tempo of a pseudo-playoff game. Against a conference rival jostling for seeding, LeBron controlled the pace, hunted switches, and turned the fourth quarter into a personal clinic. It was classic LeBron: orchestrating from the elbow, punishing smaller defenders in the post, and spraying passes to shooters in both corners.
Box score lines tell only part of the story, but the key numbers were loud: LeBron posted a high-efficiency scoring night, added double-digit assists, and crashed the glass whenever the game threatened to tilt away. The Lakers looked like a veteran group that finally understands urgency, stringing together multiple stops in crunchtime instead of trading buckets.
“It’s that time of year,” LeBron said afterward, according to ESPN’s postgame coverage. “We know what the margin for error is. We can’t play with our food.” That mindset showed in the way Los Angeles defended the three-point line and limited live-ball turnovers. They didn’t just win; they dictated the terms.
Out East, the Boston Celtics and Jayson Tatum responded in a different way. Coming off a flat performance earlier in the week, Boston needed a clean, businesslike win to steady the narrative. Tatum delivered with a complete two-way outing — a steady scoring night, smart playmaking out of double teams, and solid work on the glass.
Boston’s offense hummed when Tatum and Jaylen Brown attacked early in the shot clock. The Celtics shot well from downtown, but the bigger storyline was decision-making: fewer forced isolations, more drive-and-kick, and a balanced shot distribution that kept everyone engaged. Their win kept them on top of the Eastern Conference pile, fending off pressure from the chasing Milwaukee Bucks.
Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors, meanwhile, were back in familiar territory: a late-night thriller with real consequences in the lower half of the West. Curry, again, kept them afloat with his deep-range gravity, dragging bigs out to 30 feet and forcing entire defenses to tilt in his direction on every possession.
Golden State’s result mattered less for style points and more for survival. In the updated NBA Standings, every Warriors win is essentially a Play-In insurance policy. They still showed classic issues: shaky defensive rebounding, too many fouls in transition, and stretches where non-Curry lineups struggled to generate clean looks. But the bottom line was simple — they stayed in the race.
How the NBA Standings shifted overnight
The top of both conferences remained mostly intact, but the pressure points around seeds 4 through 10 tightened. Boston’s win kept them sitting on the East throne, while Milwaukee continued to hover just behind, tracking every slip-up. In the West, Denver’s consistency still sets the standard, but the teams beneath them are in a weekly knife fight.
Here is a snapshot of how the top of each conference stacks up right now based on the latest official listings from NBA.com and cross-checked with ESPN’s standings page. These are representative of the current hierarchy, with win-loss records and exact games behind subject to live updates on league sites:
| East Rank | Team | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston Celtics | Firm grip on 1-seed, home-court edge in sight |
| 2 | Milwaukee Bucks | Chasing hard, within striking distance |
| 3 | New York Knicks | Surging, eyeing home playoff series |
| 4 | Cleveland Cavaliers | On the edge between contender and question mark |
| 5 | Philadelphia 76ers | Health-dependent wild card |
In the West, the picture is even more volatile, particularly around the Lakers, Warriors and the cluster of Play-In hopefuls:
| West Rank | Team | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denver Nuggets | Steady at the top, championship mode engaged |
| 2 | Oklahoma City Thunder | Young, fearless, fighting for home court |
| 3 | Minnesota Timberwolves | Defense-first identity, battling for seeding |
| 4 | Los Angeles Clippers | Veteran star power, but inconsistent health |
| 5 | Los Angeles Lakers | Climbing from Play-In line toward safer ground |
Below that top five, the Play-In lane is pure chaos. Golden State, Phoenix, Dallas and a couple of upstarts are separated by the thinnest of margins. One three-game win streak can launch a team several spots; one ill-timed losing skid can nudge a contender from sixth down to tenth.
Coaches across the league are already talking like it is mid-April. As one Western assistant told reporters after Thursday’s games, “You look at the board in the locker room and it changes every night. Guys know exactly where we are. Every turnover feels like it cost you half a seed.”
MVP race: Tatum, Jokic, Giannis and the late push
On the MVP radar, the usual heavyweights remain at the front of the pack. Jayson Tatum is authoring another all-around campaign for the league-leading Celtics, pairing efficient scoring with improved playmaking and solid on-ball defense. His Player Stats profile is stacked with 25-plus points per game, strong rebounding for a wing, and over 4 assists a night.
Nikola Jokic continues to turn the box score into a personal playground for Denver. Night after night, Jokic toys with defenses as a point-center: high-post dimes, bruising post-ups, and pick-and-pop threes when defenders duck under. His latest outing featured another dominant stat line with a near triple-double, barely breaking a sweat while completely dictating tempo.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, meanwhile, keeps Milwaukee attached to Boston’s hip in the standings. His relentless rim pressure and transition dominance are still unmatched. The MVP Race remains tight, with voters forced to weigh Boston’s sparkling record, Denver’s consistency, and Milwaukee’s Giannis-dependency every single night.
LeBron’s late-season surge is at least nudging the conversation on the fringes. He will not be the betting favorite, but performances like last night reinforce the idea that, on any given night, he can still be the best player on the floor. Curry remains in a similar spot statistically: absurd usage, wild shot difficulty, but hampered by team inconsistency.
Injuries, absences and the playoff picture
The Playoff Picture right now is as much about who is on the court as who is in street clothes. Several teams are managing stars through minor injuries, and that load management calculus is bleeding directly into seeding battles.
According to injury updates across NBA.com and ESPN, multiple contenders are carefully monitoring minutes for key players. Some stars are listed as day-to-day with nagging issues, forcing role players into expanded duty. When they deliver, coaches call it “next man up.” When they do not, it shows up in the standings by sunrise.
One Eastern coach, speaking after a tight loss captured by Yahoo Sports, put it bluntly: “We’re not going to burn guys out before the playoffs, but the standings are too tight to punt games. It’s a balancing act. You just hope your bench is ready for the moment.” That tension explains why certain powerhouses drop surprise games to lottery teams in March and April.
The ripple effect on the NBA Standings is real. A single upset can vault a young team into the Play-In mix and simultaneously drag a veteran squad back into the pack. Every night, scoreboard-watching is back: players check phones in the locker room, coaches peek at out-of-town scores mid-interview, and fans track Live Scores across multiple apps.
What to watch next: must-see clashes coming up
The next few days bring a slate loaded with playoff implications and personal storylines. Lakers vs. a fellow Western contender is must-see TV purely for the LeBron factor and the seeding stakes: win, and Los Angeles inches closer to a top-six lock; lose, and they are back to sweating the Play-In grind.
Celtics matchups now are less about wins and losses and more about habits. Does Boston keep its defensive edge and commitment to ball movement, or do they slip into bad isolation habits against weaker opponents? Tatum’s MVP narrative will be shaped as much by how the Celtics handle these “should-win” games as by his raw numbers.
Curry and the Warriors face their own gauntlet. A short stretch against direct Play-In and mid-tier playoff rivals could define their season. If Golden State strings together a three- or four-game heater, they could suddenly be staring at the sixth seed from the right side. Drop those same games, and the conversation shifts from “dangerous lower seed” to “offseason questions.”
For fans, this is the sweet spot of the regular season: every night feels like a mini playoff series, and every box score carries weight. The smartest move right now is simple: keep one eye on the games and the other on the constantly shuffling NBA Standings, because the bracket we think we know today will not look the same a week from now.
Stay locked in, keep refreshing those Live Scores, and circle the marquee matchups on your calendar. With LeBron chasing one more deep run, Tatum and the Celtics hunting the 1-seed, and Curry fighting to keep Golden State dangerous, the race is only getting tighter from here.
