NBA Standings shake-up: LeBron’s Lakers climb, Tatum’s Celtics hold firm as Curry keeps Warriors alive
05.02.2026 - 00:14:39
The NBA standings are tightening by the day, and Thursday night felt like another mini-playoff slate. LeBron James pushed the Los Angeles Lakers closer to safer Play-In ground, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics stayed firmly in the East driver’s seat, and Stephen Curry once again kept the Golden State Warriors’ postseason hopes on life support. With the playoff picture shifting almost nightly, every possession suddenly carries real May-and-June weight.
[Check live stats & scores here]
LeBron’s late push keeps Lakers in the hunt
The Lakers’ season has lived on the edge for months, and Thursday was no different. LeBron James once again looked more like a 28-year-old freight train than a 39-year-old veteran, piling up a near triple-double line and orchestrating the offense in crunchtime. With the West bunched up from seeds 7 through 11, every win is a two-game swing, and Los Angeles played like it.
The box score told the story: LeBron filling every column, Anthony Davis anchoring the defense with double-digit rebounds and rim protection, and the role players finally hitting shots from downtown. Coach Darvin Ham emphasized afterward that the group "has figured out how to win ugly," a nod to the way the Lakers are grinding out possessions rather than relying on highlight-reel sequences.
On the other end, their opponent wilted under fourth-quarter pressure. Turnovers, rushed threes, and missed free throws opened the door, and LeBron kicked it in. That single result nudged the Lakers up the West ladder, nudging them closer to a top-8 cushion rather than a do-or-die 9–10 Play-In showdown.
Tatum and the Celtics keep flexing at the top
While chaos reigns in the middle of each conference, the top of the East still runs through Boston. Jayson Tatum and the Celtics delivered another statement win, stabilizing any whispers of a mini-slump with a sharp, professional performance that felt more like a routine home playoff game than a regular-season night.
Tatum was in full three-level mode, slicing to the rim, living at the free-throw line, and punishing switches with step-back jumpers. Jaylen Brown’s two-way impact popped again: hard drives, baseline cuts, and relentless point-of-attack defense. The Celtics’ spacing and ball movement generated clean looks all night, piling up assists and keeping turnovers low.
Coach Joe Mazzulla has been preaching "trust the pass" all season, and you could see it in the way Boston shredded mismatches and attacked closeouts. Even when the threes did not fall for a stretch in the third quarter, their defense never let go of the rope. The result: the Celtics hold the league’s best record and remain the measuring stick in every serious title conversation.
Curry’s Warriors refuse to fade
If there is one player who simply will not let his team fade quietly into the lottery, it is Stephen Curry. The Warriors, buried below .500 for stretches this year, have treated the last couple of weeks like a prolonged elimination game. That continued on Thursday, with Curry lighting it up again and dragging Golden State a step closer to the crowded West Play-In picture.
Curry’s line did what Curry lines often do: points in the 30s, elite efficiency, and a barrage of threes from well beyond the arc. But it was the timing that mattered. A pull-up three in transition to halt an opponent run, a deep bomb with the shot clock ticking down, a back-breaking step-back from the left wing as the building erupted. It felt like every big moment was scripted for him.
Draymond Green stabilized the defense, barking out coverages and switching across multiple positions, while the young role players finally flashed some consistency. Coach Steve Kerr summed it up postgame: "We are playing like our season is on the line because it is." The Warriors still have little margin for error, but nights like this make them a nightmare Play-In opponent.
Where the NBA standings sit right now
With Thursday’s results in the books, the NBA standings tightened even further around the key tiers: top seeds, solid playoff teams, and the Play-In mosh pit. The Eastern Conference remains more stratified at the top, while the West is pure chaos from 4 to 11.
Here is a snapshot of the current top tier and Play-In lines, based on the latest official board from NBA.com and cross-checked with ESPN.
| East Rank | Team | Record | Games Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston Celtics | Best in East | — |
| 2 | Milwaukee Bucks | Top-tier | Chasing Boston |
| 3 | New York Knicks | Solid playoff | Within reach of 2 |
| 4 | Philadelphia 76ers | Upper tier | Climbing after injuries |
| 5 | Cleveland Cavaliers | Upper tier | Right in the mix |
| 7 | Miami Heat | Play-In range | On the bubble |
| 8 | Indiana Pacers | Play-In range | Danger zone |
| West Rank | Team | Record | Games Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma City Thunder / Denver Nuggets tier | Top of West | Neck-and-neck |
| 3 | Minnesota Timberwolves | Contender tier | Within a couple of games |
| 4 | Los Angeles Clippers | Home-court hunt | Small gap |
| 7 | Los Angeles Lakers | Above .500 | Play-In but rising |
| 8 | Golden State Warriors | Just under middle pack | Clinging to Play-In |
| 9 | Dallas Mavericks tier | Play-In traffic | On the bubble |
The exact records may shift by a half-game overnight as more results go final, but the tiers are clear. Boston is out front in the East, Denver and Oklahoma City are dueling for the West’s 1-seed, and everyone from the Lakers to the Warriors to the Mavericks is one bad week away from slipping out of the Play-In picture entirely.
Playoff picture: who is safe, who is sweating
In the East, the Celtics look locked into the top spot unless a major injury or monumental collapse hits. Milwaukee and the Knicks form the next tier: not quite on Boston’s level, but stable enough that falling into the Play-In would take a full-blown disaster. Philadelphia and Cleveland occupy the dangerous middle, where a bad injury week or a 5-game skid could drop them into a 7–8 fight.
The back half of the East is chaos. The Heat are doing typical Heat things, coasting at times before locking in defensively when needed. The Pacers’ high-octane offense can bury teams, but their defense still leaks points. Every matchup here feels like a coin flip, and tiebreakers will loom huge.
The West, though, is a knife fight. The Thunder and Nuggets are chasing that 1-seed, with Minnesota and the Clippers lurking. One or two missteps, and that prized home-court advantage in a second-round series can vanish. Below them, the Lakers are surging at the right time, while the Warriors are clinging on and hoping Curry has one more magic run in him.
Coaches across the league are preaching the same message in March: there are no throwaway games anymore. Every back-to-back matters. Every late-game execution possession is a mini playoff rep. And every night, somebody moves up or down a line in the NBA standings.
MVP race and top player stats: Jokic, Luka, Giannis, Tatum
The MVP race remains a four-man cage match, even if the order fluctuates week to week. Nikola Jokic continues to feel like the default answer, with a nightly line that hovers around a 27-point, 12-rebound, 9-assist near triple-double on absurd efficiency. He controls the game’s tempo like a point guard trapped in a center’s body, and Denver’s top-of-the-West profile boosts his case.
Luka Doncic is right there with him. His Player Stats are mind-bending: north of 30 points per game, with double-digit assists on many nights and plenty of 40-point bombs when Dallas needs every ounce of his shot creation. The downside is the Mavericks’ fragile place in the standings. Voters historically punish MVP candidates whose teams are flirting with the Play-In.
Giannis Antetokounmpo remains the most physically overwhelming force in the league, punishing defenses in transition and living in the paint with a nightly 30-and-12 baseline. If Milwaukee tightens up on defense down the stretch and surges into a strong 2-seed, his case will pick up steam again.
Tatum’s candidacy is more subtle but tied to Boston’s dominance. His raw scoring may sit slightly below Luka’s or Giannis’s, but he brings high-level two-way impact, late-game shot-making, and the best record in the league on his résumé. In a race this tight, every marquee head-to-head, every national TV explosion, and every clutch-time decision will be dissected.
Man of the Night: all-around dominance
Among Thursday’s slate, LeBron, Curry, and Tatum each had a strong claim as "Man of the Match." LeBron flirted with a triple-double, controlling the tempo and closing in crunchtime. Curry detonated from downtown, with a heavy chunk of his points coming in the second half as Golden State made its push. Tatum brought the full package: scoring, rebounding, playmaking, and sturdy defense on the opponent’s best wing.
None of them posted a historic 70-piece or a record-breaking night, but the context matters. These were wins directly tied to seeding and survival. Sometimes a "normal" 30-8-7 from LeBron in a must-win game says more than a random January explosion against a lottery team.
Injuries and rotation tweaks shaping the stretch run
Across the league, coaches are juggling tired legs, nagging injuries, and the reality that one mistimed tweak could swing a season. Several playoff contenders are managing stars through minor issues rather than chasing every last regular-season win. That means more opportunity for young bench guys to pop, but also more volatility in night-to-night performance.
Sinngemäß hört man immer wieder denselben Ton von den Coaches: "We have to be smart with minutes, but we also cannot afford to give up ground." It is a tightrope. Sit a star, drop a winnable game, and suddenly you are staring at a 7-seed. Push too hard, and you risk a soft-tissue injury that lingers into the first round.
That balancing act will only intensify as back-to-backs stack up and travel miles pile on. Depth, development, and coaching creativity will be as critical as star power in deciding who climbs and who slips in the final NBA standings.
Must-watch games coming up
The next few days are loaded with matchups that could swing both the playoff picture and the MVP race. A Celtics prime-time showdown with another East contender will serve as a litmus test for Boston’s dominance. The Lakers face another West rival in a game that could either solidify their Play-In cushion or drag them back into the dogpile. The Warriors get no breathers, with every game carrying "win or regret it later" implications.
On top of that, head-to-head MVP clashes are scattered across the schedule: Jokic versus another elite big, Luka versus a top-tier wing defense, Giannis running into a switch-heavy group daring him to beat them from the line. These are the nights when narrative and box scores collide.
Fans scanning live scores over the weekend will see more than just numbers. Every run, every blown lead, every buzzer-beater now feeds directly into seeding, award races, and future storylines. If the last 24 hours taught us anything, it is that the line between home-court advantage and Play-In panic is razor thin.
The only safe bet? The NBA standings are going to look different again in 48 hours. Stay locked in, track the swings, and do not blink when LeBron, Tatum, Curry and company step on the floor. This stretch run is already playing like a preview of the postseason chaos to come.
