NBA Standings shake-up: Tatum’s Celtics, Jokic’s Nuggets and LeBron’s Lakers reset the race
26.01.2026 - 15:57:29
The NBA standings got another late-season jolt as Jayson Tatum’s Boston Celtics, Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets and LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers all delivered high-pressure wins that felt a lot more like April than January. With every night now reshuffling seeds, tie-breakers and the MVP race, the margin for error is shrinking fast across both conferences.
[Check live stats & scores here]
East heavyweight check: Celtics flex, Knicks grind, Heat cling
Boston keeps reminding everyone why they sit atop the NBA standings. Tatum was in full command again, pouring in efficient buckets from all three levels, orchestrating pick-and-rolls and punishing switches. Every time the opponent made a mini-run, he answered with a pull-up three or a hard drive that sent the crowd into that familiar buzz of inevitability.
Behind Tatum, the Celtics’ defense locked in during crunch time, switching almost everything, walling off the paint and forcing late-clock heaves. It is the same playoff blueprint: protect the rim, rebound, let Tatum and Jaylen Brown close. The box score only tells part of the story. The energy in the building felt like a postseason dress rehearsal, right down to the way Boston squeezed possessions in the fourth quarter.
The New York Knicks, meanwhile, keep leaning hard into their identity: ugly, physical, relentless. Jalen Brunson continues to play like a quiet superstar, dissecting defenses with patient footwork and tough midrange jumpers. The Knicks’ latest grind-it-out win again came down to late-game execution, Brunson reading traps and finding shooters in the corners or lob targets when the help rotated one step too far.
Down in South Beach, the Miami Heat are living on the edge. Jimmy Butler is still the barometer – when he cranks it up, Miami can out-tough almost anyone. But their recent form has been streaky, and it shows in the standings. One night the defense looks playoff-ready, swarming passing lanes and forcing turnovers that fuel transition buckets. The next night, they get torched from downtown and play uphill for 48 minutes. In a tightly packed East, those swings matter.
West chaos: Nuggets and Thunder push, Lakers claw, Warriors wobble
Out West, the Nuggets made another quiet but emphatic statement. Jokic turned in yet another absurd all-around line – flirting with or logging another triple-double while barely seeming to break a sweat. He controlled tempo, called his own number when the offense stalled and repeatedly found cutters for layups. Denver’s latest win not only added another W to the column, it tightened the pressure on every team chasing home-court advantage.
Oklahoma City continues to play with zero fear. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander keeps stacking MVP-level nights, mixing slithery drives with cold-blooded late-game pull-ups. The Thunder’s young core has turned their speed and spacing into a nightmare for slower defenses, and you can see opponents start to panic when OKC turns a six-point deficit into a 12-0 run in about 90 seconds.
Then there are the Lakers. Every single LeBron James performance at this point doubles as a standings update and a legacy chapter. Los Angeles grabbed a much-needed win in their latest outing, and it had that familiar script: LeBron controlling pace, Anthony Davis anchoring the paint and role players either making or missing just enough threes to decide the outcome. When the shots fall, the Lakers look like a dangerous lower-seed nobody wants to see in a play-in or first-round series. When they don’t, the holes in their half-court offense are brutally exposed.
On the opposite trajectory, the Golden State Warriors remain a nightly roller coaster. Stephen Curry still draws defensive attention like few players in NBA history, bombing from downtown and bending schemes with his off-ball movement. But Golden State’s inconsistency on defense and rebounding keeps undercutting his brilliance. One night they look like a veteran group ready to steal a series; the next they struggle with turnovers and blown coverages that gift opponents easy buckets.
Snapshot of the NBA standings: who’s in control, who’s on the bubble
The standings board in every front office looks wild right now. In both conferences, a single bad week can send a contender tumbling from a top-4 seed into the dreaded play-in zone, while a three-game heater can vault a fringe group back into safety. Here is a compact look at how the top of each conference is shaping up, along with the volatile play-in territory.
| East Rank | Team | Record* | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston Celtics | League-best | Firm grip on top seed |
| 2 | Milwaukee Bucks | Top-tier | Giannis keeps them in range |
| 3 | New York Knicks | Rising | Brunson-led surge |
| 4 | Cleveland Cavaliers | Strong | Defensive identity |
| 5 | Philadelphia 76ers | Playoff mix | Health of Embiid is everything |
| 7–10 | Play-In Mix | Clustered | Heat, Pacers, others trading spots |
| West Rank | Team | Record* | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma City Thunder | Elite | SGA driving the surge |
| 2 | Denver Nuggets | Elite | Jokic steady as ever |
| 3 | Minnesota Timberwolves | Top-tier | Defense-first formula |
| 4 | Los Angeles Clippers | Contender | Healthy stars, high ceiling |
| 5 | Dallas Mavericks | In the hunt | Luka carrying offense |
| 7–10 | Play-In Mix | Tight | Lakers, Suns, Warriors, others shuffling |
*Records and ranks reflect the latest confirmed games and may shift nightly.
The story in the East is stability at the very top and chaos in the middle. Boston and Milwaukee are tracking toward home-court advantage deep into the postseason, while a crowded pack fights to avoid the 7–10 play-in range. Every loss now comes with the risk of dropping into a single-elimination gauntlet against battle-tested teams like the Heat.
In the West, the separation between the Thunder, Nuggets and Timberwolves at the top and the rest of the field is real, but the middle tier remains razor-thin. One dominant week from a group like the Lakers or Suns could flip the narrative and the playoff picture completely.
Box score heroes: who owned the night
While the standings tell the macro story, the box scores from the last night provide the raw drama. Jokic once again turned routine into ridiculous, stacking points, rebounds and assists in a way that now feels almost normal. Any other big man putting up that line would dominate headlines for a week; for Jokic it was simply another day at the office.
Tatum’s scoring burst came with that perfect balance coaches dream about: attacking mismatches, reading double teams and trusting shooters when the defense collapsed. Boston’s spacing allowed him to go to work from the elbows and the top of the key, and his playmaking popped just as much as the scoring. The Celtics closed it out by spreading the floor, putting Tatum in isolation and letting him hunt the weakest defender.
LeBron, even in year 21, still knows when to flip the switch. In the Lakers’ latest must-win scenario, he did a bit of everything: pushing in transition, posting smaller defenders, orchestrating pick-and-rolls with Davis and finding spot-up shooters in rhythm. The box score line had that familiar balance of points, boards and dimes that makes the game feel like it’s orbiting around him.
On the flip side, a couple of big names continue to underwhelm. Some high-usage guards are racking up counting stats but struggling with efficiency, forcing tough shots early in the clock and putting their defenses in bad positions. On a night when every possession feels magnified, those 3-of-14 lines from downtown and careless turnovers become the difference between climbing the ladder and sinking into play-in danger.
MVP race: Jokic and SGA in control, Tatum and Giannis lurking
The MVP race tightened again. Jokic’s nightly triple-double threats and the Nuggets’ position near the top of the West keep him at or near the front of the conversation. Voters notice not just the raw numbers but the way Denver’s entire offense craters when he sits. His Player Stats profile reads like a video game: elite efficiency, massive usage, minimal mistakes.
SGA has turned the Thunder into one of the league’s most watchable teams. When they need a bucket, he goes iso and simply out-crafts defenders, using pace changes, footwork and that long stride to get to his spots. His blend of scoring and playmaking, coupled with OKC’s surge in the standings, has made the MVP race feel like a legitimate two-man duel at the top.
Tatum and Giannis Antetokounmpo are right there in the chase. Tatum’s case hinges on Boston’s dominance at the top of the NBA standings and his two-way impact. Giannis, meanwhile, continues to bulldoze defenses with relentless downhill pressure, piling up points in the paint and forcing constant help rotations. Both stars are one extended hot streak away from flipping the conversation.
Do not forget the usual stat monsters like Luka Doncic or the late-charging Curry flurries. A few outrageous weeks of 35-plus points per game on efficient shooting, plus a jump in the playoff picture, can still tilt ballots. The MVP race is less about one night and more about the total arc, but nights like these where standings and box scores collide tend to stick in voters’ memories.
Injuries, rotations and rumor mill: hidden impact on the playoff picture
Coaches across the league are juggling lineups with one eye on the next opponent and the other on the training room. Several contenders are managing key stars through nagging injuries, tweaking minutes, sitting back-to-backs and testing different closing groups. Those small adjustments have a huge ripple effect on seeding and the playoff picture.
When a primary creator sits, role players get thrown into bigger usage roles. Some respond with career-high scoring nights or surprise double-doubles; others struggle against top defensive matchups. Over the last 24 to 48 hours, a handful of key rotation players have either returned from short absences or exited with new knocks, and those small shifts can move a team from fourth to sixth in a hurry.
The trade and rumor mill is simmering underneath it all. Fringe contenders are watching the standings and deciding whether to push chips in for a defensive wing, a backup big, or a steady secondary ballhandler. The teams stuck in the middle – hovering around .500 and flirting with the last play-in spots – face the toughest calls. Do you chase a short-term boost to keep stars happy, or pivot toward long-term flexibility?
One executive summed up the current climate this way after another tight loss: it feels like every game is worth double now. That urgency bleeds into the locker room, into the way coaches shorten rotations in the fourth, and into how front offices view each upcoming stretch of schedule.
What’s next: must-watch clashes that could reshuffle everything
The next few days are packed with games that will hit both the fan heartstrings and the standings spreadsheet. Any matchup between the Celtics and another East contender now comes with tie-breaker implications. A showdown featuring the Nuggets or Thunder against a desperate lower-seed like the Lakers or Suns will feel close to a playoff Game 1, with Game Highlights and narrative fuel ready to explode across social feeds.
For Western bubble teams like the Warriors and Lakers, back-to-back sets against direct rivals could decide whether they survive the play-in or fight just to get there. One clutch performance, one buzzer beater, one defensive stand in crunchtime might be the difference between a top-6 lock and a win-or-go-home scenario.
From an NBA fan’s perspective, this is the sweet spot of the season. The numbers matter, the intensity rises, and every night gives us fresh twists in the playoff picture, MVP race and Player Stats leaderboards. If the last 24 hours are any indication, the coming week is going to be loaded with drama, from LeBron and Curry fighting to stay relevant in a stacked West to Tatum, Jokic and SGA trying to lock down both seeding and awards.
The board will keep shifting, but the message after this latest round of games is clear: no one can coast. The NBA standings are a living, breathing thing now, changing with every run, every cold shooting night, every unexpected breakout. Stay locked in, because the next wave of results is going to hit just as hard.
