NBA Standings shake-up: LeBron’s Lakers climb, Tatum’s Celtics hold firm as Curry explodes
31.01.2026 - 12:00:39
The NBA Standings tightened overnight as LeBron James pushed the Los Angeles Lakers to another key win, Jayson Tatum kept the Boston Celtics steady at the top of the East, and Stephen Curry turned back the clock with a vintage shooting clinic from downtown. With every result now twisting the playoff picture, the margin for error is shrinking by the possession.
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West Coast drama: Lakers grind, Warriors ride Curry’s hot hand
LeBron and the Lakers may not be sitting among the top seeds in the NBA Standings, but they are clearly treating every night like an elimination game. James controlled tempo, bullied smaller defenders in the post and orchestrated the half-court offense with trademark patience. When the game slowed to crunchtime, he repeatedly targeted mismatches, collapsing the defense and spraying to shooters for clean looks.
Anthony Davis set the tone defensively, swallowing up drives at the rim and owning the glass for another workmanlike double-double. The numbers on the box score told one story, but the eye test told another: the Lakers looked like a team that understands there is no safety net in a crowded Western Conference playoff race.
On the other side of California, Stephen Curry turned the night into his personal shooting exhibition. Off dribble-handoffs, high pick-and-rolls and broken plays, Curry punished any defender who dared duck under a screen. He racked up points in bunches, walloping the defense with deep threes that barely touched the net. Each make shifted momentum, and you could feel the arena buzz every time he crossed half court with space.
After the game, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr praised his veteran star in typically understated fashion, saying, in essence, that the offense "still flows best when Steph is aggressive and hunting his shot" while also trusting his teammates. It was that balance, hunting and trusting, that kept Golden State’s offense humming at playoff level against a locked-in opponent.
Yet even with Curry’s explosion, this is not the old Warriors cruising atop the conference. They are still fighting for position, hovering around the Play-In line and staring at a brutal closing stretch. One ice-cold shooting night could mean the difference between home court in the Play-In and a do-or-die game on the road.
Eastern control: Celtics stay steady while contenders jostle
Jayson Tatum’s Celtics once again looked the part of a team built for June. Boston’s offense did not always look pretty, but Tatum’s shot-making and decision-making late settled things. When opponents tried to blitz him off ball screens, he calmly slipped passes to rolling bigs or hit shooters stationed in the corners. When defenders stayed home, he attacked one-on-one, mixing drives, step-backs and post-ups to keep them off balance.
Jaylen Brown chipped in with timely buckets in transition, and Boston’s defense tightened when it mattered most, walling off the paint and forcing long, contested jumpers. Head coach Joe Mazzulla emphasized the defensive focus afterward, noting that once his group stopped gambling in the passing lanes and simply sat down in a stance, the game flipped.
The win kept Boston comfortably on top of the Eastern Conference, but the picture behind them is anything but settled. The Milwaukee Bucks and other East contenders are still trying to find consistent two-way rhythm, while hungry upstarts are closing the gap. Every slip now is magnified, especially with seeding tiebreakers on the line.
Current Conference Race: snapshot of the top tier
With results from the last 24 hours baked in, the top of each conference has a little more clarity, even as the middle remains a logjam. Here is a compact look at how the very top of the NBA Standings stack up right now at the head of each conference race:
| East Rank | Team | Record | Games Behind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston Celtics | Best-in-East | – |
| 2 | Milwaukee Bucks | Top-tier | Chasing BOS |
| 3 | New York Knicks | Upper seed | Within striking distance |
| 4 | Cleveland Cavaliers | Upper seed | Clustered near 2–3 |
| 5 | Orlando Magic | Playoff line | In crowd |
| West Rank | Team | Record | Games Behind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma City Thunder | Top of West | – |
| 2 | Denver Nuggets | Near top | Neck-and-neck |
| 3 | Minnesota Timberwolves | Top-tier | Within 1–2 games |
| 4 | Los Angeles Clippers | Home-court range | Clustered at top |
| 5 | Dallas Mavericks | Firm playoff | In top 6 mix |
Exact records will keep shifting night to night, but the structure is clear: the Celtics and Thunder hold the pole positions; the Nuggets, Bucks and a surging Mavericks group are lurking; while teams like the Lakers, Warriors and others sit in that dangerous gray zone between comfort and chaos in the Play-In tier.
Playoff Picture: every possession is leverage
Scan the live Playoff Picture on any major scoreboard page and the same truth jumps out: there is no breathing room. In the West, the difference between the sixth seed and the 10th seed can be as thin as a one-game swing and a head-to-head tiebreaker. That means a random Wednesday in January or February suddenly carries April weight.
The Lakers know this all too well. With their latest win, they nudged themselves a little closer to the secure top-six range, but the teams clustered around them refuse to blink. A single cold night from LeBron or Davis, or a nagging injury that forces one of them to sit, could easily send them tumbling back toward a win-or-go-home Play-In showdown.
For Golden State, the Playoff Picture feels even sharper. Curry is playing at an MVP-adjacent level in bursts, but the margin for error shrinks whenever the supporting cast goes quiet. One bad defensive quarter or a bench drought can flip a must-win into a gut-punch loss, and in this standings environment, those are the nights that linger.
Out East, Boston’s cushion allows them to think long-term, but for teams in that 4–8 range, every matchup is a seeding war. Finishing fifth instead of sixth can be the difference between drawing a wounded contender or running headfirst into a fully healthy juggernaut. Coaches are starting to shorten rotations in crunchtime and lean harder on their primary creators.
Player Stats spotlight: who owned last night?
The box scores across the league were loaded again. On the star front, LeBron James delivered a classic all-around performance, filling up the Player Stats columns with scoring, rebounding and playmaking. His ability to control pace remains elite; even when he is not pouring in 40, his fingerprints are on every key possession.
Stephen Curry, meanwhile, flashed why he is still one of the most terrifying offensive weapons the sport has ever seen. His Player Stats line told the story: high-point total, efficient shooting, multiple threes from well beyond the arc and enough playmaking to keep the defense honest. Every time he hit from deep, it felt like a mini earthquake in the arena.
For Boston, Jayson Tatum continued to build a sturdy season-long MVP case. His mix of scoring, rebounding and improved playmaking popped again, and the Celtics needed every bit of it. While the exact numbers will update game to game, the themes are consistent: Tatum is producing at a level that keeps Boston’s offense from ever hitting full panic.
On the disappointment side, a couple of high-usage guards around the league endured rough shooting nights, with stat lines full of missed threes and empty possessions. You could feel the frustration in their body language and hear it in postgame comments about needing to "play downhill" and "trust the next pass" more often.
MVP Race: Tatum, Jokic, Luka and the usual chaos
The MVP Race may not be officially decided until the very end of the regular season, but nights like this keep reshuffling the order. Tatum’s steady dominance in wins, Nikola Jokic’s nightly triple-double threat in Denver and Luka Doncic’s outrageous usage and scoring outbursts for Dallas are anchoring the conversation.
Jokic remains the advanced-metrics darling, living in the top tier of efficiency while casually flirting with triple-doubles. Dallas rides as far as Luka’s shot creation and pick-and-roll magic will take them, and his Player Stats profile screams "offensive engine" every night, especially when he is dropping 30-plus with double-digit assists.
Tatum, though, owns the narrative advantage of leading the team with the best record in the league. Voters have often leaned toward the star on the top seed when the numbers are comparable, and right now, he checks that box while also carrying a heavy two-way load. If Boston keeps stacking wins and Tatum maintains this level, he will stay at or near the front of the MVP Race discussion.
LeBron and Curry probably sit a tier below in the race because of team records, but performances like last night still matter. They apply pressure to the top of the ballot and give voters something to think about if any of the frontrunners stumble down the stretch.
Injuries, rotations and hidden standings swings
Beyond the box scores and the obvious Game Highlights, the quieter stories from the last 24 to 48 hours might prove just as important. Several contenders are managing injuries to key rotation players, tweaking lineups and minute allocations in ways that will ripple through the standings.
A starting wing sitting with a sore ankle may not make the national headlines, but it forces a coach to bump a young bench player into high-leverage minutes against elite scorers. That is where you see the cracks: a blown coverage in pick-and-roll, a late closeout on a corner shooter, a missed box-out on a crucial free throw. Those small mistakes become the difference between escaping with a two-point win or watching a buzzer-beater drop.
Coaches around the league echoed the same theme in their postgame comments: health and depth. They know their stars will carry them in crunchtime, but they also know the 6th to 9th men in the rotation might quietly decide the fate of their seed line. The NBA Standings will ultimately reflect who survives the grind without losing too much ground when injuries hit.
What to watch next: must-see clashes and standings stakes
The schedule over the next few days is loaded with games that double as playoff previews. Boston will see another test against a physical Eastern opponent determined to prove it belongs in the same tier. Every matchup for the Celtics now is a chance for Tatum to reinforce his MVP narrative and for the league’s best record to stretch its lead.
Out West, keep an eye on every Lakers and Warriors outing. When LeBron faces another top Western seed, the atmosphere will feel like mid-April, not regular-season grind. Expect high-minute nights for James and Davis and playoff-style rotations from head coach Darvin Ham. For Curry and the Warriors, every game against another Play-In contender is effectively a four-point swing in the race.
The Thunder and Nuggets will also be under the microscope. If Oklahoma City continues to hold onto the top spot, the conversation will quickly move from "great story" to "legitimate title threat" around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company. Denver, with Jokic orchestrating everything, remains the barometer; any slip from them invites chaos at the very top of the West.
For fans, this is the stretch when box scores and Live Scores become daily rituals. The NBA Standings page is no longer a casual check-in; it is a scoreboard of anxiety and hope. One look tells you who is surging, who is sliding and which stars are about to be pushed into desperation mode.
If the trends from last night hold, we are headed toward a wild finish: Tatum and the Celtics defending their perch, LeBron and Curry fighting the clock and the standings, Jokic and Luka waging an MVP tug-of-war and a Playoff Picture that refuses to settle. Buckle up, refresh those Live Scores often, and circle every head-to-head matchup between teams clustered in that crowded middle. The season’s stretch run just hit another gear.
