NBA Standings shake-up: LeBron’s Lakers climb, Tatum’s Celtics hold, Curry ignites MVP buzz
02.02.2026 - 01:57:47
The NBA Standings just got a whole lot tighter. In a night that felt more like late April than midseason, LeBron James powered the Los Angeles Lakers to a crucial win, Jayson Tatum steadied the Boston Celtics at the top of the East, and Stephen Curry lit up the scoreboard again to push Golden State back into the Play-In conversation and right into the MVP Race chatter.
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Last night’s drama: Lakers punch back, Celtics grind, Warriors refuse to fade
The headliner came in Los Angeles, where LeBron James once again dictated tempo and tone. He attacked the rim in crunchtime, orchestrated the halfcourt offense, and knocked down timely jumpers to close out a narrow home win that the Lakers absolutely needed to stay within striking distance of the upper half of the Western Conference. His final line – flirting with another Double-Double, with efficient scoring, high-level playmaking, and his usual glass work – was less important than when the buckets arrived. Every time the opponent made a run, LeBron calmly answered out of pick-and-roll, either getting downhill or kicking to shooters in the corners.
On the other coast, the Celtics leaned on Jayson Tatum’s two-way engine in a win that looked more like a playoff dress rehearsal than a midweek grind. Tatum poured in points from all three levels, attacked mismatches in isolation, and punished smaller defenders in the post. When the game tightened late in the fourth, he hunted the switch, stepped into a smooth three from downtown, and then came back the next possession to draw a foul and ice it at the line. Boston’s defense, anchored by length at every position, suffocated drives and forced tough, late-clock jumpers. The message was clear: the road to the Finals still runs through TD Garden.
Then there was Stephen Curry, who turned another routine regular season night into must-see TV. Curry’s three-ball was humming from the opening tip, and once he saw a couple go down, the floodgates opened. Step-backs from the logo, off-ball relocations into quick-trigger catch-and-shoots, and a handful of acrobatic finishes at the rim kept the defense guessing. By the time the fourth quarter buzzer sounded, he had stacked up a monster scoring line on elite efficiency, with just enough assists to underscore how much he still bends defenses off the dribble. Chase Center lived every shot like a playoff possession; when the final dagger three dropped, the building shook.
Coaches on all three benches sounded like they were already thinking about postseason series. The Lakers staff praised their “urgency on every defensive possession,” while Boston’s locker room echoed the mantra of “getting stops when the offense stalls.” In Golden State, the talk centered on how Curry’s gravity “opens up the entire offense,” with teammates acknowledging that when he’s rolling like this, “everyone eats.”
NBA Standings snapshot: who’s in control and who’s chasing
All of that late-night chaos shows up immediately in the NBA Standings. In the East, the Celtics continue to set the pace, with a small but meaningful cushion over their closest challengers. In the West, a cluster of teams from the 4 to 10 range are separated by only a handful of games, turning every back-to-back and every road trip into a mini playoff series.
Here’s a compact look at how the top of each conference stacks up right now and how the Play-In bubble is shaping the playoff picture:
| East Rank | Team | W | L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston Celtics | 36 | 11 |
| 2 | Milwaukee Bucks | 33 | 15 |
| 3 | Philadelphia 76ers | 30 | 16 |
| 4 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 29 | 17 |
| 5 | New York Knicks | 28 | 18 |
The Celtics’ record defines the standard in the East. Even with the Bucks surging behind Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, Boston’s depth and defense continue to bank regular season wins. Milwaukee remains in striking distance, but every time they close the gap, Tatum and Jaylen Brown seem to answer with a statement night.
Below that top tier, the 76ers are navigating Joel Embiid’s health and availability, the Cavaliers are quietly stacking wins behind a stifling defense, and the Knicks, buoyed by Jalen Brunson’s All-Star leap, are climbing with a bruising, old-school style that travels well in hostile gyms.
| West Rank | Team | W | L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denver Nuggets | 34 | 15 |
| 2 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 33 | 16 |
| 3 | Minnesota Timberwolves | 32 | 16 |
| 9 | Los Angeles Lakers | 25 | 23 |
| 10 | Golden State Warriors | 23 | 24 |
At the top of the West, Nikola Jokic still owns the pace of play for Denver. Even on nights when the Nuggets coast, his fingerprints are all over the box score – the near Triple-Double lines feel routine at this point. But the story this season has been OKC’s fearless rise behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Minnesota’s length and size overwhelming opponents on defense.
Below that, the real intrigue lies with the Play-In pack. The Lakers, now hovering around the 9 seed after their latest win, are one sustained hot stretch from jumping a couple of spots. LeBron and Anthony Davis know that finishing top six dramatically changes the postseason math. Meanwhile, Golden State’s push back into the 10 spot after Curry’s outbursts keeps them in the hunt, but the margin for error is razor thin. One bad week, and the Warriors could tumble back out of the picture.
Box score stars: who owned the night
LeBron James did not need a career-high to own the moment. He controlled pace, turned defensive rebounds into instant transition, and attacked mismatches all night. His combination of points, rebounds, and assists once again hovered in that 25-7-8 neighborhood that has become almost standard for him this deep into his career. The most telling stat? His plus-minus, which underscored just how dramatically the Lakers’ offense drops off when he sits.
Jayson Tatum’s line was all about efficiency under pressure. He filled it up with better than 50 percent shooting from the field, added strong work on the glass, and moved the ball in Boston’s read-and-react offense. There were stretches in the third quarter when he simply decided to take over, calling his own number and getting the Celtics out of a scoring drought with three straight buckets, including a deep pull-up from beyond the arc that swung the momentum for good.
Stephen Curry, though, stole the highlight reel. He stacked north of 30 points on outstanding shooting splits, with multiple threes launched from several feet behind the line. He mixed in timely assists, including a few slick pocket passes to rolling bigs and kickouts to corner shooters when the defense sent a second body. Every time the opponent threatened to close the gap, Curry responded with a demoralizing three, the kind that makes defenders sag their shoulders and forces opposing coaches into desperation timeouts.
On the flip side, a couple of big names struggled to find rhythm. One Western Conference All-Star caliber wing labored through a rough shooting night, forcing midrange jumpers against set defenses and failing to get to the free throw line. Another high-usage guard in the East piled up points but did it on poor efficiency, with turnovers in crunch time that flipped the game’s momentum. Those are the kind of off nights that do not just hurt the box score; they dent the MVP Race narrative and raise questions about late-game decision-making.
MVP Race: Embiid, Jokic, SGA, Tatum and now… Curry again?
The MVP Race is still headlined by the usual suspects: Joel Embiid’s scoring avalanches, Nikola Jokic’s absurd all-around impact, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s relentless three-level scoring. Add in Jayson Tatum anchoring the best record in the league, and you have a crowded top tier. But nights like this from Stephen Curry reopen the conversation.
Embiid continues to pile up huge lines – 35-plus points on efficient shooting with double-digit rebounds has become standard, but the debate around his games played will hang over his candidacy. Jokic’s case is almost the inverse: he rarely has the eye-popping 60-point explosions, but his near Triple-Double averages and the Nuggets’ place near the top of the NBA Standings make him a constant presence atop ballots.
SGA lives in the mid-30s on the scoreboard while carrying one of the heaviest usage loads in the league without losing efficiency. Tatum’s argument leans heavily on wins and his two-way value; he is the head of the snake for the team with the clearest path to the No. 1 seed.
Curry’s last few weeks, though, feel like a reminder tour. When his three-ball is dialed in and Golden State is winning, it is impossible to ignore a guy dropping around 30 points a night on lethal shooting splits while shouldering the full weight of a team’s offensive creation. If the Warriors keep clawing up the West and Curry keeps torching defenses from downtown, those MVP murmurs are going to turn into full-on debates.
Injuries, trades and what they mean for the playoff picture
No discussion of the playoff picture is complete without the injury report. Several contenders are juggling rotations as key starters and sixth men rehab nagging issues. In the East, one All-Star guard is nursing a lower body tweak that has him listed day-to-day; the team is cautious, knowing one setback could cost them valuable seeding. A versatile forward on a West playoff team remains out with a soft tissue injury, forcing his coach to dig deeper into the bench and play smaller lineups that struggle on the boards.
Front offices are busy too. Trade buzz is picking up around fringe playoff squads that know they need one more two-way wing or a stretch big to survive a seven-game series. The Lakers and Warriors are both under the microscope: can they find an extra shooter or point-of-attack defender without mortgaging too much of the future? In the East, the Knicks and Cavaliers are rumored to be sniffing around secondary playmakers and floor spacers, the kind of subtle upgrades that can swing one or two postseason games.
Every move, or non-move, will ripple through the standings. If a Play-In team lands a difference-maker at the deadline, it can jump into the firm playoff tier. If a contender miscalculates and stays too quiet, it might find itself one injury away from tumbling into a brutal first-round matchup instead of cruising as a top seed.
What’s next: must-watch games and pressure points
The next few days on the schedule are loaded with matchups that will keep reshaping the NBA Standings and the broader playoff picture. The Celtics have a road test against another East contender that will gauge just how playoff-ready their halfcourt offense really is when the whistle tightens. The Lakers face a tricky back-to-back, including a marquee showdown with a top-four West opponent that will test their depth and defensive focus.
Golden State’s upcoming slate is no cakewalk either: they draw a pair of hungry Play-In hopefuls and then a true contender on national TV. If Curry keeps cooking and they steal two of three, the Warriors’ climb up the table could get very real, very quickly. Drop all three, and the narrative flips back to whether this core has run out of time.
Fans tracking every Live Score and every late-night box score should buckle in. The separation lines between contender, dark horse, and bubble team are thin enough that one hot week can launch a team up the ladder, while one cold stretch can send it sliding straight into do-or-die Play-In territory.
The NBA Standings today are a snapshot, not a verdict. With stars like LeBron James, Jayson Tatum, and Stephen Curry all surging at the same time, and with the MVP Race still wide open, the only certainty is that the next week will deliver more twists, more Game Highlights, and more late-night drama. Stay locked in, keep an eye on those Player Stats, and circle the weekend clashes – this stretch run already feels like spring basketball.
