NBA Standings shake-up: LeBron’s Lakers surge while Tatum’s Celtics chase top seed
12.02.2026 - 11:30:27
The NBA standings tightened overnight as LeBron James and the Lakers kept their late push alive and Jayson Tatum’s Celtics held their nerve near the top of the East. With Nikola Jokic, Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic all impacting the playoff picture, the league woke up today to a very different vibe in both conferences.
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Across the league, fans got a little bit of everything: crunch-time drama, MVP-level stat lines, and a standings race that now feels more like late-April than mid-season. Every possession is starting to feel like a tiebreaker, and the way teams are jockeying for position is redefining this year’s playoff picture.
LeBron keeps the Lakers relevant, crowd in full playoff mode
In Los Angeles, LeBron James once again bent the game to his will. In a high-pressure matchup with direct Western Conference implications, he delivered a vintage all-around performance, stuffing the box score with points, rebounds and assists while orchestrating the Lakers offense like it was May, not February. The atmosphere at Crypto.com Arena felt like a postseason preview: tense, loud, and hanging on every whistle.
Each time the opponent threatened a run, LeBron answered. A pull-up three from downtown to stop a 7-0 burst, a no-look dime in transition to spark the crowd, a strong drive through contact late in the fourth. On the other end, Anthony Davis anchored the defense at the rim, altering shots and cleaning the glass for a big-time double-double that underlined why the Lakers still see themselves as more than just a Play-In team.
Afterward, the Lakers locker room sounded like a group that knows the margin for error is razor-thin. The coaching staff emphasized that every game from here on out is basically a seeding game. The message: the Western standings are too stacked to coast, and the veterans know it.
Celtics stay steady on top as Tatum sets the tone
On the East side, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics handled their business with clinical efficiency. It was not a flashy blowout, but a controlled, professional win that kept them firmly near the top of the NBA standings and reinforced their identity as a two-way juggernaut.
Tatum poured in efficient points, got to his spots in the midrange, and drew extra defensive attention that opened up clean looks for his shooters. Jaylen Brown provided secondary scoring punch, and the Celtics defense once again locked in during crunchtime, forcing contested jumpers and limiting second-chance opportunities.
Boston’s coaching staff has been preaching habits, not highlights. You could see it in the way they closed: smart switches, no gambles, secure rebounds. Even in a regular-season game, it felt like a dress rehearsal for May and June.
How the current NBA standings look at the top
With last night’s results locked in, the top of both conferences has that classic separation: a few true contenders, and a chaotic pack behind them trying to avoid the Play-In or sneak into it. Here is a compact look at the teams shaping the race right now.
| Conference | Rank | Team | W | L | Games Back |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East | 1 | Celtics | – | – | – |
| East | 2 | Bucks | – | – | Close |
| East | 3 | 76ers | – | – | Within striking distance |
| West | 1 | Nuggets | – | – | – |
| West | 2 | Thunder | – | – | Neck and neck |
| West | 3 | Timberwolves | – | – | Right behind |
| West | 9 | Lakers | – | – | Play-In mix |
| West | 10 | Warriors | – | – | On the bubble |
The exact win-loss columns shift nightly, but the pattern is clear. Denver, behind Jokic’s nightly triple-double threats, is battling for the 1-seed with upstart Oklahoma City and a rugged Minnesota group. In the East, Boston is trying to hold off Milwaukee and Philadelphia in a race that could decide home-court advantage all the way to the conference finals.
The Play-In line is where things get brutally real. The Lakers and Warriors hovering around the 9–10 zone makes every matchup feel like an elimination game. A two-game skid can drop you from feeling secure to suddenly watching the standings with a sick feeling in your stomach.
Game highlights: Curry’s fireworks, Jokic’s control, Doncic’s creation
Stephen Curry once again lit it up from beyond the arc, keeping Golden State in the fight with a barrage of threes from well beyond the line. Even when the defense tracked him over every screen, he needed just a sliver of space to punish them. One deep triple late in the fourth swung the momentum, and even in a tightly contested battle, every defender on the floor gravitated his way.
Nikola Jokic reinforced his MVP credentials with a classic all-around line. Points in the paint, soft-touch floaters, cross-court lasers to shooters in the corners – he dictated tempo from the opening tip. The box score told the story: heavy scoring, double-digit rebounds, high assist numbers, and the usual near-triple-double rhythm that makes Denver’s offense almost impossible to scheme for in a seven-game series.
Then there is Luka Doncic, who once again looked like a one-man offense. He piled up points with step-back threes and bully drives, but his playmaking was just as lethal. The assist count climbed quickly as he kept feeding shooters and bigs out of pick-and-roll. When he gets into that groove where he is reading two and three defenders at a time, it feels less like a regular game and more like a film session where he already knows the ending.
Coaches around the league have been clear: to beat these MVP-level guys, you cannot just hope they have an off night. You have to force the ball out of their hands, survive the role players, and hope your own stars can match them shot for shot in crunchtime.
MVP race: Jokic, Doncic, Tatum, and the LeBron factor
The MVP race right now has a clear top tier, but it is tighter than ever. Jokic anchors the conversation with his advanced numbers and winning impact. Doncic chases with monstrous usage and highlight-heavy scoring nights. Tatum’s case leans on team success: his Celtics are near or at the top of the NBA standings, and he has been the unquestioned No. 1 on both ends in big spots.
LeBron James adds a fascinating wrinkle. At his age, the efficiency and control he shows, especially in late-game situations, keep nudging him into the conversation, even if pure volume and seeding may work against him compared with younger, higher-usage stars. The narrative is powerful: dragging the Lakers through a brutal West, putting up elite Player Stats, and still taking the toughest defensive assignments in key stretches.
Right now, Jokic’s nightly near-triple-double production and Denver’s place near the top of the West probably give him a slight edge. But one bad week, one minor injury, or a sudden surge by Doncic or Tatum, and the discourse can swing quickly. That is the reality of a race this stacked.
Injuries, rotations, and trade noise shaking the playoff picture
Injuries continue to be the silent force behind the playoff picture. Teams in both conferences are making short-term sacrifices to keep stars healthy for April, which can mean dropping a winnable game now to avoid a bigger problem later. A key starter missing a week can be the difference between securing a top-six spot and slipping into the Play-In chaos.
Coaches are tinkering with rotations, too. Some contenders are leaning into small-ball lineups, prioritizing spacing and switching defense, while others are doubling down on size and rim protection. Those choices show up directly in the standings. A hot shooting week can vault a team a couple of spots; a cold stretch from deep can send them crashing into tiebreaker territory.
Trade chatter also hangs over the league. Teams in the middle of the pack are trying to decide whether to push chips in for an extra scorer or wing defender, or stay patient and trust their young cores. One mid-season move for a reliable 3-and-D starter could tilt a series down the line, and front offices know it.
Playoff picture: contenders, climbers, and teams on the bubble
At the top of the West, Denver, Oklahoma City, and Minnesota look like locks, with their focus more on matchups than simply making the field. Right behind them sit a cluster of dangerous teams who could swing a series with one road win: think of squads led by stars who can steal a game in any building.
The Lakers and Warriors are the ultimate wild cards. If LeBron, Davis and Curry are healthy and locked in, no one in the top half of the bracket wants to see them as a 7 or 8 seed. One or two games in the Play-In might be all it takes to inject chaos into a carefully plotted bracket.
In the East, Boston, Milwaukee and Philadelphia sit in various forms of comfort, but no one is truly relaxed. A brief skid, plus a surge by a hungry second-tier contender, can flip home-court and change everything. For the teams closer to the bottom of the bracket, simply avoiding a first-round draw against Tatum’s Celtics or Giannis’s Bucks is motivation enough to treat every night like a must-win.
What to watch next: must-see matchups and storylines
The coming days are loaded with games that could swing seeding and fuel the MVP race. Any time the Lakers see a fellow West contender, it is appointment viewing. Every Celtics matchup against a top-6 East rival doubles as a tiebreaker test and a potential conference finals preview.
Watch for Curry and the Warriors in hostile environments, trying to prove they can still win on the road when the threes are not falling early. Track Jokic against fellow bigs who will test his defense and physicality. Keep an eye on Doncic in crunchtime, where every possession becomes an isolation puzzle that opposing defenses rarely solve.
For fans tracking the NBA standings daily, this is the stretch where it pays to lock in. Lineups get tighter, urgency ramps up, and every box score starts to look like a preview of postseason storylines. Stay tuned, because the next week could reshuffle seeds, rewrite MVP ballots, and set the tone for who storms into the playoffs and who stumbles into the Play-In.
@ ad-hoc-news.de
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