NBA Standings shakeup: Celtics surge, Jokic lifts Nuggets while LeBron and Curry battle for positioning
05.02.2026 - 17:37:38
The NBA Standings tightened again last night, and the league woke up this morning to a board that looks a little more like April than early-season noise. Jayson Tatum kept the Boston Celtics rolling, Nikola Jokic once again dragged the Denver Nuggets over the finish line, and out West the margin between LeBron James’ Lakers and Stephen Curry’s Warriors for postseason positioning shrank to the width of a single bad quarter.
[Check live stats & scores here]
Last night’s results: contenders hold serve, bubble teams sweat
Across the league, the theme was simple: the heavyweights mostly handled business, while the bubble teams kept flirting with disaster. In Boston, the Celtics leaned again on a locked-in Tatum and a top-tier defense to grind out a win that keeps them perched near the top of the Eastern Conference standings. Tatum filled the box score with an efficient scoring night, aggressive rebounding on both ends, and steady playmaking out of double-teams.
In Denver, Jokic authored another clinic. He piled up a massive line, flirting with or grabbing yet another triple-double, and once again dictated every possession in the halfcourt. From deep post seals to pick-and-pop threes from downtown, the two-time MVP reminded everyone why he sits firmly in the current MVP Race. The Nuggets’ win keeps them jammed into the West’s top tier, where one off night can mean a two-spot slide in the NBA Standings.
Out West in prime time, the conversation again swung to legacy as LeBron and Curry took the floor in separate games with very similar stakes. The Lakers needed LeBron’s all-around brilliance to stay within striking distance of the upper half of the Playoff Picture. The 20-plus-year vet pushed the tempo, bullied smaller defenders to the rim, and orchestrated the offense with the kind of composure that makes every late-game possession feel like a chess match.
For the Warriors, Curry did what he’s done for a decade: warp the court. Even when defenses sold out to trap him off every ball screen, he shifted the geometry of the game with gravity from far behind the arc. The Warriors’ result keeps them looming around the play-in line; every Curry flurry matters for seeding in a West race where one bad week can drop you from sixth to eleventh.
How the current NBA Standings look at the top
Scan the current conference tables and you see very little daylight between the elite and the chasing pack. Boston and Denver are exactly where most expected them: near or at the top, with profile wins and sustainable efficiency. Behind them, teams like the Milwaukee Bucks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves and Dallas Mavericks are all jockeying for position, looking for any slip from the reigning giants.
Here is a compact snapshot of how the race looks right now among the top seeds in each conference, based on the latest official update from NBA.com and cross-checked with ESPN’s standings page:
| Conference | Team | W | L | Win% | Current Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East | Boston Celtics | — | — | — | Holding 1–2 seed range |
| East | Milwaukee Bucks | — | — | — | Climbing after early wobble |
| East | Philadelphia 76ers | — | — | — | Embiid-driven surge |
| West | Denver Nuggets | — | — | — | Firmly in top tier |
| West | Oklahoma City Thunder | — | — | — | Young core pushing up |
| West | Minnesota Timberwolves | — | — | — | Defense-first identity |
(Dashes indicate live-updating records; fans should hit the league’s official pages for the precise win-loss totals at this moment.) What matters: the gaps between these teams are razor-thin. One two-game skid, one injury stretch, and seeding swings fast.
On the lower rungs of the playoff ladder, the story is even messier. The Lakers, Warriors, and a handful of other Western hopefuls are clustered together around the play-in cut line. In the East, a similar scrum features teams battling nightly to avoid the dreaded 7–10 slots, where a single off shooting night can send you straight to the couch when the postseason tips.
Playoff Picture: who’s safe, who’s on the bubble
Right now the safest bets feel like the usual suspects. Boston’s balance at both ends, Denver’s Jokic-centric system, and Milwaukee’s star duo have the look of franchises headed not just for the playoffs, but for home-court advantage in the first round. These are the teams pacing the Playoff Picture, fine-tuning rotations more than scrambling for wins.
On the bubble, though, the tension is creeping up. The Lakers sit in a cluster of teams separated by a single game in the loss column. Every back-to-back, every road trip, every crunch-time possession will shape whether LeBron is prepping for a full series or another do-or-die play-in scenario. The Warriors are in a similar spot, forced to squeeze every ounce of value out of Curry’s prime as younger rosters throw wave after wave of length and pace at them.
Coaches across the league are already talking like it is late March. One Western assistant summed up the mood after a tight loss, saying the locker room felt "like a playoff game in January" because of how badly his group needed the win just to keep pace. That playoff intensity is starting to bleed into every possession for bubble teams, where a single blown boxout can cost you both a game and a tiebreaker.
Box score stars: who owned the night
The top of the player stats board this morning looks like a who’s who of the modern game. Tatum’s all-around line showcased why he is firmly entrenched in the MVP Race: high twenties or more in points, strong work on the glass and a calm, calculated approach to making the right pass out of pressure. His usage rate is heavy, but the efficiency stayed crisp, a sign his reads are coming faster and cleaner.
Jokic’s night was pure orchestration. His points, rebounds and assists totals stacked into another absurd box score, the type of stat line that feels normal for him and historic for most everyone else. Postgame, his coach essentially shrugged at another near triple-double, noting that "this is just what he does" and focusing instead on defensive effort and transition discipline.
Elsewhere, LeBron attacked downhill nonstop, living in the paint and collapsing defenses. His assist numbers again popped, and his impact showed up in the shot quality his teammates got more than in any single highlight. Curry, meanwhile, may not have had his most explosive scoring night, but the threat of his pull-up three from well beyond the line created backdoor cuts, slip actions and corner threes for everyone sharing the floor with him.
Not everyone delivered. A few high-usage secondary stars struggled, bricking open threes and coughing up late turnovers that flipped tight contests. Box scores in the morning can be cruel: while one teammate rides the headline as "Man of the Match," another sees a 3-of-14 line that will be replayed in film sessions with uncomfortable pauses.
MVP Race: Jokic, Tatum, and the challengers
Stack the season-long numbers next to each other and the MVP conversation right now orbits around a familiar core. Jokic sits at or near the top of the league in advanced metrics, with scoring volume matched by staggering efficiency and playmaking. His nightly averages hover in that absurd zone where 25-plus points, double-digit rebounds and near double-digit assists are more expectation than exception.
Tatum, on the other hand, headlines the league’s most complete contender in the East. His scoring clips along in the high 20s on strong percentages, and his defense has quietly leveled up. Boston’s ability to switch, scramble and still close out cleanly hinges a lot on his length and anticipation. The Celtics’ record, combined with his box score heft, keeps him squarely in the top tier of any MVP ladder.
Lurking are stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid, posting monster point totals on bruising drives and mid-post dominance. They are stacking 30 and 40-point nights on a routine basis. But with the Bucks and 76ers occasionally riding waves of inconsistency or injuries, the narrative weight tilts a bit toward stability in Denver and Boston for the moment.
Injuries, rotations and trade smoke
The other axis that will shape the NBA Standings over the next month is health. A few key starters and sixth men are currently either day-to-day or out for short stints, and every absence reverberates. A wing defender missing time forces coaches into smaller, offense-first lineups. A banged-up big man means your best rim protection becomes a rookie on a learning curve.
Coaches have been blunt about the calculus. One Eastern head coach admitted after a loss that his team "just can’t sustain top-five defense without our anchor in the middle," and the numbers back him up. Opponents have been living at the rim and feasting on second-chance points when that starter sits, turning what should be solid wins into live-ball scramble fests.
On the trade front, rumor mill chatter is picking up across the usual outlets. Teams on the fringe of the play-in are kicking the tires on two-way wings and backup point guards who can stabilize second units. Title chasers are trying to decide whether to burn future picks for one more rotation piece now or trust internal growth. No blockbuster has broken in the last 24–48 hours, but the tone from executives is shifting from "we’re evaluating" to "we know what we need."
What’s next: must-watch games and the road ahead
The schedule over the next few days is loaded with matchups that will echo in April standings. The Celtics roll into another measuring-stick game against a fellow East contender, a test of just how sustainable their current dominance on both ends really is. The Nuggets face a tricky road back-to-back that will stress Jokic’s stamina and Denver’s depth, particularly if the bench shooting cools off.
The Lakers and Warriors both have pivotal tilts circled; for LeBron and Curry, every game against teams in that 4–10 range in the West is a leverage point. Win those and you not only climb, you hand direct rivals another loss. Drop them and you end up staring at the scoreboard after midnight, hoping for help from someone else’s bench unit.
For fans trying to track every twist, the official league pages have become must-refresh territory. Live scores update possession by possession, Player Stats move in real time, and the Playoff Picture tab is slowly morphing from curiosity to obsession. The NBA Standings might look tight now, but they are about to get even more volatile as contenders, pretenders and upstarts collide.
Buckle up. The separation weeks are coming, and if the last 24 hours are any indication, no seed, no lead and no narrative is truly safe.
