NBA Standings shake-up: LeBron’s Lakers climb, Tatum’s Celtics hold line as Curry stars in wild night
06.02.2026 - 00:17:36
The NBA standings took another twist last night as Jayson Tatum steadied the Boston Celtics, LeBron James powered the Los Angeles Lakers to a crucial win and Stephen Curry delivered yet another scoring masterclass to keep the Golden State Warriors relevant in a brutal Western Conference race.
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In a season where every possession feels like April, last night’s slate tightened both conferences. From the top seeds fighting for home court to the Play-In scramble, the updated NBA standings now tell the story of contenders separating, bubble teams scratching for life and a few stars putting entire franchises on their backs.
Game recap: Celtics keep composure, Lakers grind, Warriors fire away
Boston stayed on brand: organized, physical and ruthlessly efficient. Tatum set the tone early, attacking downhill, drawing contact and collapsing the defense to open clean looks for shooters. Even when the offense stalled for a stretch in the third quarter, Boston’s defense turned the game into a half-court grind that favored their size and discipline.
Tatum’s line spoke for itself in the box score: a classic two-way star performance with strong scoring, rebounding and playmaking. Around him, Jrue Holiday hounded ball-handlers at the point of attack, and Jaylen Brown repeatedly punished mismatches in the midpost. It was not a highlight-reel blowout, it was a playoff-style win that keeps the Celtics perched near the top of the Eastern Conference table.
Out West, LeBron’s Lakers were back in must-win mode, meaning James controlled the tempo like it was May. He orchestrated from the top, hunted switches, and punished smaller defenders in the post while still finding shooters in the corners. Anthony Davis anchored the paint, cleaning the glass and erasing drives at the rim. Whenever the offense bogged down, LeBron slowed it to a chess match, attacking the weakest defender until the game tilted Los Angeles’ way.
The Lakers’ victory does more than just add a W. It nudges them up the Western ladder, away from the dangerous edge of the Play-In line and closer to a guaranteed playoff berth. In a tightly packed conference, that kind of midweek result can echo for weeks.
Then there was Stephen Curry, who once again turned a routine regular-season date into an event. From the opening tip he was hunting threes from well beyond the arc, using off-ball screens to shake free and forcing defenses into panic-mode rotations. His scoring binge, fueled by deep shots from downtown and crafty finishes in traffic, dragged the Warriors offense into overdrive and kept them very much alive in the Play-In conversation.
Golden State still has defensive questions and depth concerns, but when Curry looks like this, nothing about their ceiling feels settled. As one opposing coach put it postgame, paraphrased: “You can do everything right on a possession, and he still hits from 28 feet. That’s demoralizing.”
How the updated NBA standings look at the top
The overnight shake-up did not flip the league on its head, but it tightened margins almost everywhere that matters. At the top of the East, Boston remains one of the clear pace-setters, with Milwaukee and a resurgent group of contenders chasing. Out West, the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder continue to live near the summit, while the Minnesota Timberwolves, Clippers, Suns, Mavericks, Warriors and Lakers form a volatile cluster beneath.
Here is a compact look at how the top of each conference and the Play-In bubble currently stack up, based on the latest official update to the NBA standings:
| East Rank | Team | Record | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston Celtics | Best-in-East record | Holding steady |
| 2 | Milwaukee Bucks | Top-tier record | Chasing hard |
| 3 | Philadelphia 76ers | Upper-tier | Health-dependent |
| 7 | Miami Heat | Mid-pack | Up-and-down |
| 9 | Los Angeles Lakers | Play-In range (West) | Climbing |
And a snapshot of the Western Conference pressure cooker:
| West Rank | Team | Record | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denver Nuggets | Top of West | Controlling |
| 2 | Oklahoma City Thunder | Elite record | Surging youth |
| 4 | Los Angeles Clippers | Upper tier | Stabilized |
| 7 | Dallas Mavericks | Playoff/Play-In border | Luka-dependent |
| 10 | Golden State Warriors | Play-In zone | Fighting |
Those records tell a blunt story: the elite are trying to bank wins now so they can manage minutes later, while everyone in the 5 through 10 range is one bad week away from panic mode. Every night’s box scores now feel like a mini Playoff Picture update.
Player stats spotlight: Tatum, LeBron, Curry carry the load
This stretch of the season is when the MVP race and nightly Player Stats start merging into one conversation. Every big line hits different when seeding is at stake.
Jayson Tatum has quietly built one of the most complete profiles in the league. Even on nights when the three-ball does not fully cooperate, he still stacks points with drives, free throws and midrange pull-ups, while pulling down tough rebounds in traffic. What jumps out recently is the playmaking: his willingness to hit the roller, find the weakside corner and trust his shooters. It is not flashy like some heliocentric stars, but it wins.
LeBron James remains an outlier. The box score still shows high-20s scoring on efficient shooting, with near double-digit assists and sturdy rebounding. The eye test adds the rest: pacing himself through early quarters, then snapping into full control in crunchtime. His late drives, post-ups and skip passes turned a tight game into a controlled finish, and you could feel the opposing defense run out of answers.
Stephen Curry, meanwhile, is pure pressure. Another night with a hefty scoring total and multiple threes from way behind the line kept Golden State’s offense humming. More important than the raw numbers is the gravity: defenders picking him up 30 feet out opens driving lanes for everyone else. Even when he is not the assist man, every Warriors bucket feels connected to his movement.
On the other side of the ledger, a few high-usage guards around the league continue to trend in the wrong direction, with low shooting percentages and turnover-prone nights that are dragging down otherwise solid defensive efforts. Coaches rarely call guys out by name to the media, but one Western assistant hinted postgame that some players “have to pick their spots better and trust the pass instead of forcing hero-ball.”
MVP race and playoff picture: who is positioning themselves best?
The MVP race right now is less about narrative and more about who translates production into wins. Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander remain at the heart of that conversation, but nights like Tatum’s, LeBron’s and Curry’s keep their names hovering on the radar. Put bluntly, voters do not ignore box scores that look like playoff stat lines in February and March.
In the East, Boston’s consistency keeps Tatum’s candidacy alive. Every time the Celtics answer a rough patch with a locked-in, defense-first win, it reinforces his value as the fulcrum of a title-level team. If Boston finishes atop the conference, it will be hard to talk MVP without him front and center.
In the West, LeBron and Curry are fighting different battles. LeBron’s case is about defying age while still being the engine of a team clawing for playoff seeding. Curry’s hinges on whether his individual brilliance can pull Golden State far enough up the table to justify votes. Fair or not, team record will loom large over both.
All of this plays directly into the broader Playoff Picture. The Nuggets and Thunder are not just racking up wins; they are establishing habits. The Celtics are stacking home-court equity. The Lakers, Warriors and other Play-In candidates are trying to avoid the sudden-death landmine of a bad shooting night ending their season in mid-April.
Injuries, rotation tweaks and the rumor mill
As always, health is the quiet headline under every standings graphic. Several playoff teams are managing minutes for banged-up stars, and a couple of rotation players across the league have recently hit the injury report with knocks that could sideline them for a few games. Coaches, unsurprisingly, are playing coy: “Day-to-day, we will see how he responds,” has become the standard refrain.
On the trade and rumor front, front offices are already looking ahead to the off-season. Role players on expiring deals are being evaluated in real time; how they perform in these pressure games can decide whether they are part of a future core or trade chips. One executive, speaking on background this week, reportedly described this stretch as “an extended audition under playoff lights.”
Rotation-wise, several contenders tightened things up last night. Boston leaned on a seven-to-eight-man core in the second half, while the Lakers staggered LeBron and Davis to keep at least one star on the floor at all times. Golden State continued to experiment with small-ball lineups around Curry, betting on pace and spacing to outgun bigger teams.
What comes next: must-watch games and how to follow the race
The next few days bring exactly the kind of matchups that make the NBA standings feel like a living, breathing organism. Boston faces another tough, physical opponent on the road, a test of whether their defense truly travels. The Lakers and Warriors both hit stretches where a two-game swing could mean jumping multiple spots or falling back toward the Play-In danger zone. Marquee national TV windows will feature LeBron, Tatum and Curry again, turning routine nights into referendum games on title chances.
If you care about the MVP race, this is the window where every big scoring night or clutch-time sequence gets replayed and re-litigated. Want to track the Player Stats that actually move the needle, the Live Scores that shake the Playoff Picture and the Game Highlights everyone will be arguing about the next morning? Keeping one eye on the updated NBA standings page is non-negotiable.
The season has officially hit the stretch where nothing that happens is just a random Tuesday game anymore. Every rebound, every late-game turnover, every three from downtown folds directly into the playoff math. Buckle up, refresh those box scores often, and stay locked in on the official pages for the latest shifts in this chaotic, star-driven race.
