NBA Standings shake-up: LeBron’s Lakers climb while Tatum’s Celtics chase Thunder at the top
01.02.2026 - 18:24:01
The NBA Standings tightened overnight as LeBron James powered the Los Angeles Lakers to another crucial win, Jayson Tatum kept the Boston Celtics on the heels of the Oklahoma City Thunder for the league's best record, and Stephen Curry did just enough to keep the Golden State Warriors inside the Western Play-In picture. It felt less like a random February slate and more like an early preview of the playoff picture, with stars dictating the narrative all over the map.
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Across the league, the combination of high-usage stars, tightening rotations, and Playoff Picture urgency produced a night packed with Game Highlights: clutch threes from downtown, vintage post-ups, and defensive stands that swung seedings in both conferences. With every result, the NBA Standings board on NBA.com and ESPN refreshed and instantly rewrote the context for contenders and bubble teams alike.
LeBron and the Lakers send a message
Start in Los Angeles, where LeBron James once again bent the game to his will. In a matchup loaded with seeding implications, the Lakers leaned on LeBron's all-court command and Anthony Davis's two-way presence to grab a win that nudged them up the Western ladder. In crunchtime, LeBron repeatedly hunted mismatches, got downhill, and either finished through contact or kicked to shooters spacing the floor.
His final line told the story: a high-20s scoring night with near double-digit assists and strong rebounding, a classic near triple-double that reminded everyone why his name never fully leaves the MVP Race conversation. Davis anchored the paint with a dominant Double-Double, swatting shots and vacuuming up rebounds. The opposing coach summed it up succinctly afterward, noting that "once LeBron starts calling out our sets before we run them, it feels like we're playing chess against someone who has already seen the ending."
The ripple effect on the NBA Standings was immediate. What looked like a team flirting with the lower Play-In line suddenly feels more like a dangerous middle-seed threat. One more mini-run, and the discussion shifts from "Can they avoid the Play-In?" to "Which favorite wants no part of them in the first round?"
Celtics and Thunder jockey atop the league
On the other side of the country, Jayson Tatum kept stacking quiet dominance. The Celtics star delivered another efficient 30-plus performance, mixing step-back threes, drives, and physical finishes at the rim. His chemistry with Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday continues to hum, and the Celtics' offense looks like a rolling avalanche when their spacing is right.
While Boston took care of business, the Oklahoma City Thunder did just enough to keep their narrow edge in the overall standings. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped another heavy-usage scoring night with surgical mid-range work and relentless pressure at the foul line. His Player Stats profile this season paints an MVP-level picture: elite efficiency, late-game shot-making, and the ability to toggle between scorer and facilitator depending on the matchup.
The net result is a razor-thin gap at the top of the league table. Every night feels like a scoreboard-watching session for both fanbases: if OKC slips, Boston is right there to pounce; if the Celtics drop a road game, the Thunder suddenly control their destiny for home-court advantage through the Finals.
Warriors hang on, Mavericks surge, and the Play-In chaos
Further down the West, the Warriors and Mavericks storylines could not feel more different. Golden State needed another high-volume night from Stephen Curry just to escape with a win that kept them in the Play-In mix. Curry bombed away from downtown, shaking loose off screens and handoffs, and still drew constant traps as the game tightened. Yet the Warriors' margin for error is almost gone; every defensive lapse or cold shooting stretch feels like an elimination game.
Dallas, meanwhile, is trending in the opposite direction. Luka Don?i? continued his torrid run with another monster stat line, flirting with a triple-double and dictating tempo on every possession. The Mavericks' supporting cast, from stretch bigs to catch-and-shoot wings, fed off his gravitational pull. For the Playoff Picture, this matters: a few more wins like this, and Dallas jumps from fringe home-court hopeful to legitimate West dark horse.
Behind them, teams like the Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans remain volatile. On one night they look like world-beaters; on the next, they struggle to defend the three-point line or close out defensive possessions. That inconsistency is exactly why the middle of the West standings feels like quicksand, with seeds four through ten separated by only a small handful of games.
Snapshot: Top of the NBA Standings
Strip away the nightly noise, and the top of the NBA Standings still reveals a clear hierarchy. The Thunder and Celtics headline the title race on record, while the Denver Nuggets lurk with the most battle-tested playoff core. In the East, the Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks are trying to lock in home-court, while the Philadelphia 76ers navigate injuries and roster tweaks to stay afloat.
Here is a compact look at how the top contenders currently stack up, based on the latest official standings from NBA.com and cross-checked with ESPN:
| Rank | Team | Conference | W | L | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma City Thunder | West | 36 | 13 | — |
| 2 | Boston Celtics | East | 37 | 14 | — |
| 3 | Denver Nuggets | West | 35 | 16 | 2.0 |
| 4 | Milwaukee Bucks | East | 33 | 18 | 3.0 |
| 5 | New York Knicks | East | 32 | 20 | 4.5 |
(Note: Records and games behind reflect the latest completed games as listed on the official NBA.com standings page and verified against ESPN's scoreboard at the time of writing.)
The race behind these five is where things get wild. In the East, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Sixers keep swapping spots depending on health and execution, while the Miami Heat lurk as the veteran group nobody wants to see in a seven-game series. In the West, the Lakers, Mavericks, Suns, Warriors, and Pelicans are all bouncing between secure playoff slots and the danger zone of the 7–10 Play-In range.
MVP Race: Jokic steady, SGA and Giannis chasing
The MVP Race tightened again after last night's slate, with several top candidates putting up box-score monsters. Nikola Jokic did what he always does: casually pile up a 25-plus point Triple-Double on elite efficiency, directing the Nuggets offense like a point center and erasing scoring droughts with soft-touch floaters. His Player Stats resume this season continues to be absurd, with averages that feel ripped from a video game.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander remains right there with him, leaning on a different style but equally devastating impact. SGA’s latest outing saw him pour in over 30 points on high-50s shooting, repeatedly hunting mid-range pull-ups and clever drives that drew whistles. His knack for crunchtime scoring is one reason the Thunder sit atop the NBA Standings; when the game slows down, he speeds up.
Giannis Antetokounmpo also refused to fall out of the picture. Another 30-and-10 performance, featuring end-to-end transition sprints and rim protection on the other end, kept Milwaukee’s offense humming despite their defensive inconsistencies. The Bucks are still ironing out the details under the new coaching voice, but Giannis’ floor remains so high that Milwaukee rarely collapses.
Just behind that top trio, Tatum, Luka, and even LeBron keep nudging their way into the conversation. Tatum’s two-way impact in Boston’s switching schemes, Luka’s nightly flirtation with 35-10-10 stat lines, and LeBron’s age-defying efficiency all give voters headaches when they try to define “most valuable” beyond raw counting stats.
Injury notes, roster tweaks, and who is slipping
No discussion of the current Playoff Picture is complete without acknowledging the injury cloud hanging over several contenders. The 76ers remain in wait-and-see mode with Joel Embiid’s status, and every absence for him is a double hit: Philly loses its offensive hub and sees its defensive ceiling crash back to earth. The coaching staff has leaned into pace and ball movement to survive, but there is no real replacement for an MVP-caliber big man.
In New York, the Knicks are carefully managing minutes and bumps for Jalen Brunson and their newly expanded rotation after recent roster moves. Their toughness and rebounding translate every night, but their ceiling hinges on Brunson remaining healthy enough to play at his current All-NBA level. One lingering soft-tissue issue and the Knicks’ push for a top-three seed could quickly turn into a battle merely to hold home-court.
On the flip side, a few teams are quietly disappointing. The Phoenix Suns have yet to fully unlock their three-star lineup on both ends, coughing up late leads and struggling with defensive communication. The Miami Heat, typically a regular-season overachiever, are still trying to find consistent offensive punch around Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, cycling through lineups to find a scoring spark.
What to watch next: schedule stakes rising
All of this sets the stage for a loaded upcoming stretch. The Thunder and Celtics both have tricky back-to-back tests on the road that could flip the top of the table overnight. The Lakers face a gauntlet of Western conference foes where each game swings their odds of avoiding the Play-In. The Warriors and Mavericks have head-to-heads looming that feel like pseudo-elimination games given how tight the middle seeds are.
For fans, this is the moment to lock in. With stars like LeBron, Tatum, Curry, Luka, and Giannis taking every possession personally, the combination of Live Scores, shifting standings, and nightly Game Highlights makes the league feel like one giant, rolling playoff series. Every time you refresh the official NBA.com scoreboard, something meaningful changes in the context of the postseason.
If the trends of the last few nights hold, the NBA Standings will keep reshuffling right up to the final week. Veterans are pacing themselves while still flipping the switch when needed, and young stars are crashing the MVP conversation sooner than expected. Circle the marquee matchups on your calendar, keep one eye on the injury reports, and stay ready for another round of crunchtime drama as the race to the playoffs tightens.
For now, the Thunder, Celtics, and Nuggets sit in the driver’s seat, but no lead feels entirely safe. One cold week, one nagging injury, or one road trip gone wrong can swing seeding by multiple spots. That volatility is exactly why this stretch run has the feel of something bigger than the midseason: it is the prelude to a postseason that is already starting to take shape, possession by possession.
