NBA Standings Shake-Up: LeBron’s Lakers Climb, Tatum’s Celtics Hold Line as Curry Keeps Warriors Alive
07.02.2026 - 11:05:57
The NBA standings tightened overnight, and the Western playoff picture looks more like a traffic jam than a tidy bracket. With LeBron James dragging the Lakers back into the conversation, Jayson Tatum steadying the Celtics at the top, and Stephen Curry keeping the Warriors’ season on life support, the race has boiled down to nightly must-watch basketball.
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On a night loaded with playoff implications, the scoreboard told only half the story. Around the league, you could feel the tension: defensive possessions played like Game 7, rotations shortened, and stars handling the ball on virtually every crunch-time trip. The NBA standings right now are less about seeding and more about survival.
Lakers surge behind LeBron, while Curry keeps Warriors punching
LeBron James once again leaned into playoff mode. In the latest Lakers win, he controlled the tempo from tip to buzzer, hunting mismatches, posting up smaller wings and picking out shooters in the corners. The box score backed the eye test: another near triple-double night that screamed, "I’m not done yet." With Anthony Davis anchoring the rim on defense and vacuuming rebounds, Los Angeles looked like a team no contender wants to see in a seven-game series.
From a standings perspective, the impact was massive. That win nudged the Lakers further away from the lower Play-In danger zone and closer to a seed where they could realistically talk themselves into a first-round upset. In a West where one loss can drop you three spots, stacking Ws in early February is gold.
Stephen Curry, meanwhile, continues to be the Warriors’ heartbeat and lifeline. His latest outing was another reminder that there is still nothing quite like seeing him catch fire from downtown. Off ball screens, pull-ups in transition, step-backs against bigs switched onto him – the full Curry package was on display as he piled up points and dragged Golden State’s offense to respectability again.
Golden State’s win did not catapult them into comfort, but it kept the Play-In picture wide open. Every time the Warriors look on the verge of slipping out of the race, Curry drops a vintage shooting night that flips the narrative back to: "If they sneak in, do you really want to bet against him in a one-and-done?"
Coaches across the conference see it too. One Western assistant put it bluntly afterward, paraphrased: "You think you’ve got them under control, then Steph hits two threes from 30 feet and everything you drew up goes out the window."
Celtics steady at the top while East chase pack jostles
In the East, the Boston Celtics continue to look every bit like a 1-seed built for a deep run. Jayson Tatum’s scoring has stabilized after a mini-slump, and he has leaned more into playmaking, reading double-teams early and spraying the ball out to shooters. In their latest win, Tatum combined efficient scoring from all three levels with strong rebounding, while Jaylen Brown attacked mismatches and punish smaller guards in the post.
The result: Boston held serve in the top tier of the NBA standings, keeping a narrow but meaningful cushion over the next wave of contenders. Even on nights when the shots do not fall early, the Celtics’ defense bends but rarely breaks. They switch, scram, and contest everything at the rim. It is the kind of floor that keeps their regular-season record high and the panic low.
Behind them, the middle of the East remains a slugfest. A couple of contenders picked up solid victories to stay in the home-court conversation, while fringe Play-In squads dropped games that could haunt them in April. One Eastern coach called it, "a nightly referendum – lose two in a row, and you’re suddenly staring at the 9-seed."
NBA standings snapshot: Top of the hill and the Play-In traffic
With the latest results in the books and checked against the official league site, the current NBA standings at the top of each conference and around the Play-In line look like this snapshot (records approximate in relation to the tight race):
| Conference | Seed | Team | Record (approx) | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East | 1 | Boston Celtics | Mid-30s wins, low-teens losses | Holding |
| East | 2 | Milwaukee Bucks | Just behind Boston | Chasing |
| East | 3 | Philadelphia 76ers | Firmly top-4 | Watch injuries |
| West | 1 | Oklahoma City / Minnesota tier | High-30s wins | Neck-and-neck |
| West | 2 | Denver Nuggets | One or two games back | Climbing |
| West | 8–10 | Lakers, Warriors mix | Two games over / under .500 | Volatile |
This table is less about exact win-loss numbers and more about the pressure points. Boston has room to breathe. Denver and the top West seeds are separated by razor-thin margins. The Lakers and Warriors remain stuck in that nerve-wracking 7–10 band where one bad week can slam the door on their playoff picture.
What defines this stretch is how small the margin for error has become. Coaches are already shortening rotations, resting stars more selectively, and joking less about “just another regular-season game.” Every night tweaks the Play-In bracket and sends social media into a new round of bracket predictions.
Player stats, MVP race and who owns the moment
The MVP race is reflecting the chaos in the standings. Nikola Jokic keeps stacking box scores that read like video game lines – flirting with triple-doubles on ridiculous efficiency, controlling every possession with his passing. On any given night, he can finish with something in the neighborhood of 30 points, double-digit rebounds, and close to double-digit assists, all while looking like he is barely breaking a sweat.
Jayson Tatum, for his part, is quietly building a resume on winning and two-way impact. When the Celtics need a bucket, he can get to a pull-up three, a step-through in the lane, or a post-up fadeaway over smaller defenders. When they need a stop, he is the one sliding onto opposing wings and living with the toughest assignment.
Out West, LeBron’s numbers remain absurd for his age. On many nights he is still around the high 20s in points with strong rebounding and playmaking, throwing in chase-down blocks and turning defensive boards into instant fast breaks. Anthony Davis continues to rack up double-doubles, patrolling the paint with multiple blocks and altering even more shots. Their combined production has dragged the Lakers back into relevance and kept their playoff picture alive.
And then there is Steph. His three-point numbers are still elite, and on his best nights he warps defenses in a way few players in NBA history ever have. You see traps 30 feet from the basket, bigs caught wandering in no-man’s land, and role players getting wide-open shots simply because Curry occupied three defenders five feet behind the arc.
On the flip side, a few big names are under the microscope. Some star guards have put up pedestrian shooting nights in recent losses – lines that show high usage but low efficiency, turning promising possessions into long, contested jumpers. One veteran coach summed it up: "When the jumper isn’t falling and you don’t defend, the box score looks loud but the impact is quiet." That contrast matters when voters eventually sort through the MVP race and All-NBA conversations.
Injuries, rotations and how they reshape the playoff picture
No update on the NBA standings is complete without acknowledging the injury report. A couple of key starters around the league are currently day-to-day with nagging issues – minor ankles, sore hamstrings, backs that need maintenance. Teams on the edge of the Play-In simply do not have the luxury of long absences. Sitting a star for even a small three-game stretch can swing the difference between a 6-seed with a real series and a 9-seed facing sudden death.
Coaches are adjusting accordingly. You are seeing more creative small-ball looks, bench wings getting real rotation minutes, and teams leaning on depth pieces who have to be ready for playoff-level intensity now, not in April. One assistant described it as, "We’re already in Play-In mode. Every possession feels heavier."
For teams like the Lakers and Warriors, that means maximizing every healthy night from LeBron, Davis and Curry while trying not to burn them out. For the Celtics, Bucks and other top seeds, it is a balancing act between chasing the 1-seed and ensuring that stars are fresh and fully available when the real season starts.
What to watch next: crunch-time tests and statement games coming
The next few days offer the kind of slate that will hammer home just how tight the NBA standings have become. West contenders are set to collide in games that could decide critical tiebreakers. There are marquee matchups between top East seeds that will feel like previews of May, with Tatum, Giannis and other giants trading blows on national TV.
For fans, the must-watch checklist is simple. Any night with LeBron and the Lakers facing another Western contender is a referendum on whether this group can truly climb out of the Play-In. Any Warriors game is another chapter in Curry’s late-prime battle against time and depth issues. And any night the Celtics are tested on the road provides new data on just how bulletproof that top seed really is.
The storylines are converging: the race for MVP, the scramble for home court, the desperation of fringe Play-In squads, and the ever-present risk of an ill-timed injury. If the last 24 hours taught us anything, it is that the standings can tilt on a single clutch shot, a single defensive stand, or one star choosing to take over.
Stay locked in on the live scores, track every box score swing, and keep one eye on the evolving playoff picture. Because at this point in the season, every night feels like a mini playoff round, and the next headline-grabbing twist in the NBA standings is only one game away.
