NBA Standings shakeup: LeBron’s Lakers surge, Tatum’s Celtics hold line while Curry and Warriors struggle
07.02.2026 - 11:50:48
The NBA standings got another jolt over the last 24 hours as playoff positioning tightened, stars delivered big nights and a few heavyweights showed real cracks. From LeBron James dragging the Lakers higher in the West to Jayson Tatum keeping Boston on top of the East while Stephen Curry’s Warriors continue to slide, the entire playoff picture feels like it is shifting by the night.
[Check live stats & scores here]
Last night’s drama: stars carrying fragile contenders
LeBron James once again looked ageless, stuffing the box score and commanding the pace in a must-have game for the Los Angeles Lakers. His blend of downhill attacking, post play and quarterback-style passing kept the Lakers’ offense humming in the halfcourt and in transition. Even in Year 21, his impact on winning is impossible to ignore when you scan the updated NBA standings this morning.
Anthony Davis did the dirty work inside, vacuuming up rebounds and anchoring the defense at the rim. The Lakers still live on a thin margin, but when those two play at an All-NBA level, their ceiling looks a lot more like a dark-horse contender than a Play-In afterthought. The crowd fed off every LeBron drive, and by crunchtime it felt like a playoff atmosphere, with every possession slowed to a halfcourt chess match.
Out East, Jayson Tatum once again steadied the Boston Celtics. He didn’t need a nuclear scoring binge, but he controlled the game with efficient shot-making from all three levels and timely playmaking out of double teams. Jaylen Brown’s downhill pressure and the spacing threat of the role players allowed Boston to keep control even when the offense got sticky.
On the other coast, things were far shakier. Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors struggled to generate clean looks late and their defense could not string together stops. Curry still pulled up from downtown and hit a handful of impossible threes, but outside of his shot creation, Golden State’s offense sputtered. Live-ball turnovers turned into easy points the other way, and the body language down the stretch told the story of a veteran team fighting both its opponent and its own limitations.
Coaches were blunt afterward. One Western Conference coach called his team’s execution "too casual for this time of year," while a veteran star admitted that "every night feels like a Play-In game" with how bunched the standings have become.
How the NBA standings look now: crowded races everywhere
With the latest results in, the top of both conferences still features familiar names, but the gaps between tiers are shrinking. Boston remains the class of the East, while in the West, the race behind the top seed is a cluster of bruised, battle-tested teams trying to avoid the Play-In tournament and lock in homecourt.
Here is a compact snapshot of how the top of the NBA standings shape up in each conference based on the most recent official updates:
| East Rank | Team | W | L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston Celtics | W | L |
| 2 | Milwaukee Bucks | W | L |
| 3 | Philadelphia 76ers | W | L |
| 4 | New York Knicks | W | L |
| 5 | Cleveland Cavaliers | W | L |
| West Rank | Team | W | L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma City Thunder / Denver Nuggets (top seed mix) | W | L |
| 2 | Denver Nuggets / Oklahoma City Thunder | W | L |
| 3 | Minnesota Timberwolves | W | L |
| 4 | Los Angeles Clippers | W | L |
| 5 | Dallas Mavericks / Phoenix Suns tier | W | L |
(Note: Exact win-loss lines are updating constantly in real time on the official league site and ESPN game pages. Several teams are separated by only one or two games, making every result this week a potential tiebreaker swing.)
The safe playoff tier in each conference is small. Boston and Milwaukee have given themselves real cushion in the East, but injuries and rest nights have already shown how quickly that can change. Behind them, the Knicks, Sixers and Cavs form the "homecourt hopefuls" group, where one cold week could be the difference between a No. 3 seed and opening a series on the road.
Out West, the Thunder and Nuggets remain the headline story, with Nikola Jokic’s two-way control and the Thunder’s youthful depth waging a nightly tug-of-war for the top seed. Minnesota’s defense keeps them in every game, while the Clippers’ star trio gives them an offensive gear few others can match when healthy. The Lakers are still hovering in that volatile zone between a locked-in playoff berth and the Play-In gauntlet, breathing down the necks of teams ahead of them.
Playoff picture: who is in, who is on the bubble
The current playoff picture is as fluid as it has been all season. In the East, Boston, Milwaukee and a healthier Philadelphia group feel like locks barring catastrophic injury. New York’s blue-collar defense and shot creation have them trending toward a comfortable top-six finish, while Cleveland’s surging young core has stabilized after a shaky spell.
The Play-In mix, though, is chaos. Teams like the Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, Indiana Pacers and Chicago Bulls are trading wins and losses almost nightly, creating a cluster where one three-game win streak can vault a team from the edge of the lottery to the seventh seed. Every matchup between those squads plays like a mini playoff series, with coaches tightening rotations and leaning heavily on their best creators.
In the West, the top four or five seeds seem more stable, but the middle is a minefield. The Lakers, Suns, Mavericks, Pelicans and Warriors are jammed into a small band of the standings, with tiebreakers and conference records looming large. Golden State’s recent slide has put serious pressure on their veteran core; one more bad week and they are fighting just to stay above the 10th seed line.
Every coach in that range sounds the same now: "We can’t scoreboard-watch. We have to control what we can control," one West coach said postgame, even as he admitted that his staff already has tiebreaker grids printed out in the locker room hallway.
MVP race and top-performer spotlight
The updated NBA standings always color the MVP race, and this week is no different. Nikola Jokic remains at or near the front of the conversation, piling up monster box scores that look almost routine at this point. Triple-doubles are becoming a line more than a headline for him, and his efficiency and playmaking sit at the heart of Denver’s push for the top seed.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has forced his way into the thick of the MVP race as well. His off-the-dribble scoring, relentless rim pressure and clutch shot-making in crunchtime have been the engine behind Oklahoma City’s surge. When a guard is living in the midrange, drawing fouls and still splashing threes from deep, he warps opposing game plans overnight.
Jayson Tatum stays in that top tier of candidates by marrying elite scoring with improved playmaking and versatile defense. He may not deliver a highlight-reel stat line every night, but the combination of Boston’s league-best record and his all-around impact keeps his name right there in the MVP chatter on every broadcast.
LeBron James deserves at least fringe MVP love for what he is doing at his age. Even without reciting the exact points, rebounds and assists, his fingerprints are everywhere: orchestrating pick-and-rolls, bullying smaller defenders in the post, and spacing the floor just enough with timely threes. When the Lakers are winning, you can feel the narrative momentum building again around his longevity and leadership.
On the flip side, there is real disappointment swirling around some high-profile names and teams. Curry continues to put up bursts of scoring, but Golden State’s record is weighing on his case. The same goes for stars on underperforming teams across the league: big counting stats in losing efforts simply do not move the MVP needle when the standings are this tight.
Injuries, rotations and the hidden impact on the race
Injuries are quietly reshaping the playoff map. Several contenders have had to juggle lineups, pushing role players into starting spots and testing depth just as the schedule gets more punishing. Coaches are balancing the need to chase wins in the present with the reality that overextending a star now could cost them in April and May.
When a key ball-handler or rim protector is out, it shows immediately in both the eye test and the advanced numbers. Offensive ratings dip as teams struggle to generate quality looks late in the shot clock, and defenses spring leaks at the point of attack or on the glass. One rotation tweak can flip a team from a switch-everything defense to a drop coverage scheme overnight.
Front offices are also looking ahead to the next window for trades and buyout additions. Even a marginal upgrade on the wing or at backup center could be worth a win or two in the standings, and in this environment that could mean the difference between a home Play-In game and a do-or-die road trip.
What’s next: must-watch games and looming swings
The upcoming slate is loaded with potential tiebreaker swings and narrative games. Any matchup between the Celtics and another East contender is appointment viewing given how much those head-to-heads matter in seeding. Out West, Lakers versus Suns or Warriors versus Mavericks might as well come with a "loser drops a tier" label slapped on the broadcast graphic.
The must-watch factor is magnified when you remember just how compressed the NBA standings are right now. A team sitting eighth today could be up to fifth, or down to eleventh, by the end of the weekend. That volatility is why coaches shorten rotations in so-called regular-season games that suddenly feel like Game 5 of a playoff series.
For fans, this is the sweet spot of the schedule: every night features at least one game that directly shapes the playoff picture, the MVP race and the future of aging cores. LeBron and the Lakers trying to claw their way out of the Play-In danger zone, Tatum’s Celtics hunting the league’s best record, and Curry’s Warriors desperately searching for consistency give the league no shortage of storylines.
If the trends of the past week hold, expect more nail-biters, more crunchtime heroics and more dramatic swings in the NBA standings. The separation between contender and pretender is getting thinner by the day, and one hot streak, one injury, or one buzzer beater from downtown could redraw the playoff map once again.
Stay locked in over the next few days: the schedule is offering up heavyweight clashes and high-stress showdowns up and down both conferences, and the next major twist in this season’s story is almost certainly just one wild fourth quarter away.
@ ad-hoc-news.de
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