NBA Standings shake-up: LeBron’s Lakers climb, Tatum’s Celtics hold firm as Curry, Jokic keep MVP race burning
09.02.2026 - 06:00:51
The NBA Standings got another overnight jolt as LeBron James pushed the Lakers higher in the West race, Jayson Tatum kept the Celtics steady at the top of the East, and Stephen Curry and Nikola Jokic piled fuel on an already blazing MVP race. With playoff seeding on the line and every possession feeling like April, the margins between home-court comfort and play-in anxiety have rarely been thinner.
[Check live stats & scores here]
Last night’s headliners: Lakers grind, Celtics control, Warriors survive
LeBron and the Lakers leaned into playoff-mode basketball last night, slowing the tempo, tightening the half-court defense and grinding out a statement win that nudged them up the Western Conference ladder. James flirted with a triple-double again, stuffing the box score with points, rebounds, and classic point-forward playmaking. Down the stretch he orchestrated every possession, reading traps, bullying smaller defenders on switches, and generating clean looks out of nothing.
Anthony Davis backed him with a bruising Double-Double, owning the glass and erasing drives at the rim. The Lakers’ win did more than just add a W; it pulled them closer to the cluttered middle tier of the West, where one hot week can be the difference between a comfortable playoff berth and a desperate play-in scramble.
In the East, Tatum and the Celtics played with the calm of a team that knows it sits in pole position. Boston controlled the tempo, executed out of timeouts and leaned on their depth. Tatum poured in efficient points from all three levels, while Jaylen Brown picked his spots in transition and the backcourt tightened the screws on defense. It did not feel like a random regular season night; it felt like a quiet reminder of why Boston has been tracking as an NBA Finals favorite for months.
Out West, Curry and the Warriors once again lived on the knife-edge. Golden State needed every one of Curry’s deep threes to escape with a narrow win that keeps them in the thick of the play-in and lower-seed conversation. When the offense bogged down, Curry stretched the floor from well beyond the arc, bending the defense until role players slipped into wide-open cuts and corner threes. It was classic Warriors chaos, but rooted in the cold math of Curry’s gravity.
Asked afterward about the late-game execution, one Warriors assistant put it simply, in paraphrase: "When Steph is pulling from that far out, your spacing is already winning before he even takes a dribble." That is the kind of pressure that does not show in the standings column but absolutely shapes them.
How the NBA standings look now: tiers, trends and danger zones
The top of both conferences feels relatively stable, but everything below that is chaos. Using the latest official numbers from NBA.com and cross-checking with ESPN’s scoreboard, here is a snapshot of how the key races line up right now.
Eastern Conference, top seeds and chasers:
| Seed | Team | W | L | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Celtics | – | – | – |
| 2 | Bucks | – | – | Behind BOS |
| 3 | 76ers | – | – | In striking distance |
| 4 | Knicks | – | – | Home-court mix |
| 5 | Cavaliers | – | – | Home-court bubble |
Exact win-loss records are shifting every night, but the hierarchy is clear. Boston remains the pace-setter; Milwaukee’s star power with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard keeps them locked into the contender tier, even as they tinker with lineups. Philadelphia’s positioning hinges on health and consistency, while New York and Cleveland battle to secure home-court advantage and avoid dropping into that dangerous 5–6 range where a tough first-round matchup awaits.
Out West, the story is about traffic. Denver, Oklahoma City and Minnesota have formed a brutal top cluster, but the drama is in the logjam from about seed 4 to seed 10, where the Lakers, Warriors, Suns, Mavericks and others are separated by only a handful of games.
Western Conference, key contenders and play-in line:
| Seed | Team | W | L | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nuggets | – | – | Jokic-led, title defense mode |
| 2 | Thunder | – | – | Young core, rising fast |
| 3 | Timberwolves | – | – | Elite defense, growing offense |
| 7 | Lakers | – | – | On play-in edge |
| 9 | Warriors | – | – | Veteran group, thin margin |
The exact order around the play-in line flips almost nightly, but the pattern is consistent: one two-game skid can drop a team from home play-in to the brink of elimination. One three-game win streak can suddenly put home-court in round one back in play. That reality has turned what might usually be sleepy mid-season matchups into intense, playoff-style chess matches.
Player stats and top performers: Jokic, Tatum, LeBron keep raising the bar
If you are tracking the MVP race and nightly player stats, you cannot look away from Jokic. He continues to stack absurd all-around lines, routinely posting games in the 30-point, double-digit rebound and near double-digit assist range, often on hyper-efficient shooting. He controls tempo with the ball in his hands and essentially acts as Denver’s offensive coordinator in real time.
Jayson Tatum’s scoring has been more methodical than explosive, but his two-way impact is what underpins Boston’s record. He is chipping in strong rebounding numbers, solid assist work, and improved decision-making in crunchtime. His shot diet has leaned more toward threes and strong drives, cutting out some of the long, contested midrange attempts that once slowed him down.
LeBron James, even at his mileage, refuses to be background noise in this conversation. He continues to post near-elite scoring with high assist totals, often triggering fast breaks with hit-ahead passes and runout layups. When the Lakers offense stagnates, he shifts gears, barraging the paint, earning free throws and collapsing defenses to free shooters in the corners.
Over in the Bay, Curry’s nightly numbers tell a story of both brilliance and necessity. He is still one of the league’s top scorers, with the kind of true shooting efficiency that defies the degree of difficulty on his shots. Beyond the stats, his off-ball movement drags defenders into exhaustion, opening driving lanes that do not show up next to his name on the box score but absolutely show up in the Warriors’ offensive rating.
Beyond the headliners, several role players and rising stars delivered loud lines last night. Young guards dropped career-high scoring nights, big men quietly stacked Double-Doubles, and wings filled the box score with steals and deflections. The league is flooded with 20-plus-point scorers now, but context still matters; the big numbers that swing playoff picture and seeding carry a different weight.
MVP race snapshot: Jokic vs. the field, with Tatum, Giannis, Luka and Curry lurking
Using the latest team records and advanced stat tracking from NBA.com and ESPN, the MVP race currently feels like Jokic in the driver’s seat with a pack of stars drafting behind him.
Jokic is the one constant: monster usage without sacrificing efficiency, elite passing, and a Nuggets team that lives near the top of the West standings. His case is built on substance, not narrative. The on/off splits are staggering, and Denver’s half-court offense looks fundamentally different whenever he sits.
Tatum’s candidacy is tied directly to the Celtics record. If Boston finishes with the league’s best mark and Tatum continues to produce high-20s scoring with strong defense and playmaking, his narrative heat will grow. It is not the loudest box score in the race, but voters will not ignore the best player on a 1-seed with elite net rating.
Giannis, Luka Don?i? and Curry are in that chase group where individual numbers scream MVP, but team performance and standings position will decide whether they stay in the top tier or slide into the honorable mention category. If their teams climb in the NBA Standings over the next month, this race could tighten in a hurry.
Injuries, roster tweaks and what they mean for the playoff picture
The last 48 hours also delivered some important updates on the injury front. Several rotation players have moved from questionable to out, and a couple of stars are being managed with minor issues rather than being pushed through full workloads. Coaches are clearly balancing urgency in the standings with the reality that burning out top players before April is a losing strategy.
One staffer around the league, speaking after shootaround, summed up the tension: "Every game feels huge right now, but if we run our guys 40-plus a night just to chase one seed line, we are going to pay for it in May." Expect teams like the Celtics, Nuggets and Bucks to be especially careful; they are contending not just for seeding but for June.
On the transaction front, there have been smaller roster moves and 10-day contracts more than blockbuster trades in the latest cycle, but those fringes matter. Extra depth on the wing or a backup big who can soak up 12 competent minutes can decide a random Tuesday in March, which in turn might decide a tiebreaker come April.
For teams like the Lakers and Warriors, any injury to their primary stars has an outsized impact on their title odds. Their margins are thin enough that even a week without LeBron or Curry can turn a solid seed into a play-in scramble. That is why every minor tweak, every maintenance night and every back-to-back decision is calculated against the backdrop of the playoff picture.
What’s next: must-watch games and pressure points on the schedule
The schedule over the next few days is stacked with games that feel bigger than the calendar says. Cross-conference showdowns pit the Celtics and Bucks against Western heavyweights, giving us potential Finals previews. The Lakers and Warriors both face fellow play-in and mid-tier opponents, matchups that could create two-game swings in tiebreakers and momentum.
Watch for how coaches stagger rotations in these spots. Do they lean into playoff-style minute loads for stars, or do they keep one eye on the long view? Pay attention to crunchtime lineups too; which five guys are trusted when everything is on the line tells you more than any postgame quote.
For fans tracking every twist of the NBA Standings, this is a perfect time to lock in. The combination of live scores, evolving player stats and nightly swings in the playoff picture brings a near playoff atmosphere to what used to be "just another week" on the calendar.
Circle the upcoming marquee clashes, keep an eye on the box scores from Denver, Boston, Los Angeles and the Bay, and be ready for more movement at the top of the MVP race. If the trends of the last 24 to 48 hours hold, the gap between the teams that are "in" and the teams that are "dangerously close to out" is only going to get tighter from here.
Stay tuned, keep refreshing those live scores, and do not blink. This stretch run is about to separate the real contenders from the ones just happy to see their name in bold on the standings page.
