NBA Standings shake-up: LeBron’s Lakers stumble as Tatum’s Celtics and Curry’s Warriors tighten playoff race
07.02.2026 - 10:41:04
The NBA Standings just got a whole lot messier. With Jayson Tatum pushing the Boston Celtics through another statement win, Stephen Curry dragging the Golden State Warriors deeper into the Western playoff picture and LeBron James taking a costly loss with the Los Angeles Lakers, the race tightened across both conferences and crunchtime basketball arrived early this season.
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Across the league, the last 24 to 48 hours brought swing games with playoff atmosphere: top seeds flexed, fringe contenders blinked and a couple of underdogs punched above their weight. The latest NBA standings now tell a story of razor-thin margins, where one hot week can vault a team into home-court advantage and one mini-slump can drop a supposed contender into the Play-In danger zone.
Game recap: contenders show their teeth, pretenders feel the heat
In the East, Boston once again played like a group that expects to be playing into June. Tatum set the tone early, attacking downhill, punishing switches and forcing help that opened up clean looks for his shooters. He filled the box score with an all-around line — heavy points, strong rebounding and playmaking — the kind of balanced night that keeps him right in the MVP race discussion.
The Celtics defense clamped down in the second half, switching seamlessly and funneling drivers into crowded paint. Opposing guards struggled to get comfortable, and every possession felt like a playoff rep. The crowd rode every stop, and by the fourth quarter, it was less a regular-season game and more a statement to the rest of the conference.
Out West, Curry once again reminded everybody that as long as he is healthy, the Warriors have a puncher’s chance. He splashed multiple threes from well beyond the arc, including a couple of deep daggers from straightaway that flipped momentum in a heartbeat. His player stats line was vintage: high 30s in points, efficient from downtown, and just enough assists to keep the defense honest.
Golden State’s supporting cast finally matched his energy. The ball snapped around the perimeter, cutters darted behind sleepy defenders, and the Warriors leaned into their small-ball identity with skating pace and physics-bending spacing. It was not perfect — turnovers still tried to sabotage the night — but the offensive ceiling was obvious.
LeBron and the Lakers, meanwhile, ran into one of those nights that can haunt the film room. For stretches, LeBron controlled the tempo, bullying smaller defenders in the post and spraying passes to the corners. He chased a near triple-double with a heavy minutes load, but defensive lapses and cold stretches from three undercut the effort.
Late in the fourth, the Lakers’ halfcourt offense bogged down. Instead of crisp sets and multiple actions, they leaned on tough isolation looks and deep pull-ups. The opposing defense loaded up on LeBron, dared the role players to beat them, and lived with contested jumpers. It felt like a missed opportunity in a conference where every game is a seeding tiebreaker waiting to happen.
Coaches around the league echoed a similar theme afterward: margins are razor thin. One Western coach summed it up bluntly in the locker room: his group is “two games from home-court and two games from the Play-In,” a perfect snapshot of how volatile this playoff picture has become.
NBA Standings snapshot: who is cruising, who is clinging
The current NBA standings underscore just how crowded both conferences are. At the top, a handful of elite teams have carved out a cushion, but everywhere else the gap between fifth and tenth is a bad week away.
Here is a compact look at how the front of the pack is shaping up right now:
| Conference | Seed | Team | W | L | Games Behind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East | 1 | Celtics | — | — | Leader |
| East | 2 | Bucks | — | — | < 3 GB |
| East | 3 | 76ers | — | — | < 5 GB |
| West | 1 | Nuggets | — | — | Leader |
| West | 2 | Thunder | — | — | < 2 GB |
| West | 3 | Timberwolves | — | — | < 3 GB |
| West | 9 | Lakers | — | — | Play-In range |
| West | 10 | Warriors | — | — | Play-In bubble |
(Note: exact win-loss records are evolving in real time; check the official NBA.com standings page for up-to-the-minute numbers.)
What matters is the shape of the race. Boston is holding firm as the measuring stick in the East, while Milwaukee and Philadelphia hover within striking distance. Any minor skid could flip home-court advantage in a potential second-round slugfest.
In the West, Denver lives like a heavyweight champion: occasionally bored, but still in control. The Nuggets’ balance, anchored by Nikola Jokic’s command of pace and angles, keeps them at or near the top of the conference. Right on their heels, younger, hungrier groups like Oklahoma City and Minnesota are piling up wins and test-driving their playoff identity months before April.
Then there is the chaos zone: teams like the Lakers and Warriors who are too good to write off but too inconsistent to bank on. One week, they look like dark-horse contenders; the next, they are scoreboard-watching and doing playoff math on the team plane. For now, both sit in that uncomfortable Play-In window, where a single off-night could kill a season.
Playoff picture: every possession counts now
As the calendar grinds on, the playoff picture turns every regular-season night into an audition. Home-court in the first round is gold. Avoiding the Play-In is almost as important. Nobody wants to leave a seven-month grind to the flip of a two-game mini-tournament.
In the East, the Celtics, Bucks and 76ers profile as near-locks to finish in the top tier, barring injury. The middle is where the knife fight lives: teams separated by a game or two, swapping places every night based on tiebreakers and head-to-head results.
Out West, the line between a 4-seed and the 9-seed is tissue-thin. A hot streak from a veteran group like the Lakers or Warriors could vault them into safer territory. A poorly timed injury or a three-game losing streak, and suddenly you are flying across the country on short rest just to survive the Play-In.
MVP radar: Tatum surges, Jokic steady, others chasing
No conversation about the current season can avoid the MVP race. Tatum’s latest all-around outburst keeps him squarely in the conversation. He is putting up elite two-way production: heavy scoring nights, well over 25 points, plus solid rebounding and enough assists to function as a secondary playmaker. His impact shows up in the win column; Boston rarely drops games when he has his rhythm early.
Jokic, meanwhile, continues to treat the regular season like his personal chessboard. On any given night, he threatens a triple-double with points in the high 20s, double-digit rebounds and assists flirting with 10. The efficiency stays outrageous. Defenses send doubles, he finds cutters. Stay home on shooters, and he punishes single coverage with soft-touch jump hooks and bully drives.
Curry remains less about raw box-score gaudiness and more about gravitational pull. Every time he steps over halfcourt, the defense panics. The three-point numbers remain elite; even on off shooting nights, the threat of his pull-up draws help and unlocks driving lanes for teammates. Performances like his recent scoring burst keep him on the fringes of the MVP conversation, especially if the Warriors climb out of the Play-In zone.
LeBron, even deep into his career, continues to post absurd player stats: near 30-point nights, flirting with double-digit assists, still strong on the glass. The problem, as always in award debates, is team record. Voters care about standings, and the Lakers’ wobble makes his candidacy more about respect than reality at this stage.
Who is rising, who is slipping
Risers first. Boston looks like a group that can win in multiple ways: shootouts, halfcourt grinders, ugly rock fights decided by defense and late-game execution. Tatum’s surge is matched by strong role-player performances, and every win adds separation at the top of the NBA standings.
Denver is boring in the best possible way. They stack wins with clinical consistency, rarely panicking, rarely playing down to competition. Jokic’s chemistry with his core pieces keeps them stable through the schedule grind.
On the other side, the Lakers and Warriors sit under the brightest spotlight. Their losses are dissected like playoff games. The Lakers must tighten late-game defense; they have dropped too many contests after holding leads into the fourth. The Warriors still fight turnover issues and periods where their offense becomes too Steph-dependent, especially when off-ball movement stalls.
Coaches from both teams have emphasized urgency. The message is clear: there is no switch to flip in April if you do not secure your seed in March.
Injuries, rotations and the next wave of storylines
The injury report remains the quiet villain of every season. Even minor tweaks can swing a week’s worth of results and shift playoff odds. Coaches juggle minutes, rest nights and rotation experiments, always trying to balance short-term wins with long-term health.
Across the league, several contenders are carefully managing star workloads. Back-to-backs become opportunities for deeper-bench players to prove they belong in the postseason rotation. Coaches have praised the next-man-up mentality, but every absence raises the risk of dropping a game in a tightly packed standings board.
For bubble teams, every rotation decision feels amplified. Do you lean on proven vets who are steady but limited? Or roll the dice on young legs who can swing a game with energy but also make brutal mistakes in crunchtime?
What comes next: must-watch matchups and shifting stakes
The coming days are loaded with games that double as measuring sticks. Celtics matchups against other top Eastern seeds will help define the true pecking order. If Boston keeps stacking wins in those head-to-heads, they will not just lead the NBA standings; they will own crucial tiebreakers.
Out West, every Warriors and Lakers game is appointment viewing. Curry trying to bomb Golden State up the ladder, LeBron pushing to escape Play-In purgatory — those are storylines that can swing the entire playoff bracket. Toss in showdowns with the Nuggets, Thunder or Timberwolves, and you get playoff-level tension months before the actual postseason.
For fans, this is the sweet spot of the schedule. Every scoreboard matters. Every box score tells you something about where this is all headed.
If the current trends hold, the top seeds will keep creating a little distance, while the middle class of both conferences cannibalizes itself night after night. Expect another round of upsets, breakout performances and box scores that spark MVP debates and trade rumors in equal measure.
Bookmark the official league hub, keep one eye on live scores and another on the standings, because the next week could redraw the entire playoff picture. Stay tuned: the run-in has already started, and the margin for error is disappearing with every tip-off.
