Your weekly look at the NBA and what you need to know about the standings and schedule for the week of Jan. 9.

Inside the standings

Click here for the full NBA standings.

A quick tiers check to get us started. Yes, all of this is too early, but this is just to let you know where teams stand in case you haven't been paying attention.

East No. 1

The Raptors' dip has now put them behind the 8-ball. There's three months and about half the season for them to make up a four-game lead. That seems like nothing, but when you're dealing with Cleveland, who wins games at a 77 percent clip, it gets difficult.

Basically, if the Cavaliers don't let the Raptors take the 1-seed, Toronto's not getting the 1-seed.

As for the No. 2 seed, Toronto plays Boston on Tuesday. A win secures that Toronto will not lose head-to-head tiebreaker with Boston. A win by the Celtics, however, and that 2-seed is officially up for grabs.

East home-court first round

Welcome to the messy middle. Boston's scrambled a little bit above the fray and given their talent, and their sterling record vs. teams under .500 (15-3), that should be enough to secure at least a top-four seed.

Everyone else in the Eastern Conference has a shot, because no one else is great. The Hawks have gone from terminal spiral to back to cruising altitude; the Pacers are suddenly looking decent again and Chicago's on the way up. Meanwhile the Hornets keep having bad quarters against bad teams and good quarters against good teams they're not good enough to beat anyway. So the whole thing has clumped together.

The Celtics have a pivotal matchup against the Raptors on Tuesday. USATSI

This, my friends, is where I remind you once again of the importance of tiebreakers. While your beat writers and general optimistic fans tell you that early season games don't matter and there's all this season left, you need to know that your favorite team needs to be winning conference games, particularly those against the teams in this tier, now.

For example, Atlanta is 0-2 vs. Charlotte, 3-2 vs. Indiana, New York, and Detroit. These games are going to matter. Whoever winds up coming out of this pack with the most wins vs. the teams in this group is likely to come out the team in the fourth spot.

*As much of a lock as you can be in January, based on what we know, anyway

East 7th-8th seeds

Orlando's starting to tumble back down the hill towards the ditch. Their schedule is not favorable over the next month. It may be time to bid them goodbye from playoff picture.

The rest of this is just a mess. Milwaukee seems like maybe the best team of this group and they fell back to 8th with the loss to Washington Sunday. The Knicks are just keeping their foot in the door, and Detroit refuses to exit the conversation.

I wouldn't describe these teams as bad, or even mediocre. They all have the potential to be good; eventually a few will find the formula to do it just a bit more consistently. That will wind up being the difference. We're realistically looking at eight teams for five spots.

West No. 1 and No. 2 seed

The Spurs and Rockets just aren't going away, and the Warriors keep making just enough mistakes to leave this door open. They are not going away. Golden State has a bigger margin for error on paper, but Houston and San Antonio continue to just hang in. Here's how crazy this is: the Warriors are on a 68-win pace and yet it is not a sure thing they claim the No. 1 seed because Houston, in the third spot, is on a 63-win pace.

The Warriors remain the most likely winner of the No. 1 seed, just as they were the likely winners of the NBA Finals last June and of Friday night's contest vs. the Grizzlies when they held a 24-point second-half lead. So let's see what happens.

West home-court first round

Houston has a 6.5-game lead over the Jazz for a top-four spot. That's a pretty decent lead. I'm keeping Houston as a near-lock because unlike the top two, they haven't earned the benefit of the doubt in simply not suffering a sustained down streak. They're almost there, but you should feel pretty comfortable with the idea that Houston will host a first-round series.

The Clippers have gnawed their way back up to the four-spot. The reality is that the four teams beneath Houston, L.A., Memphis, Utah, and the Thunder, are going to be swapping places a lot until Blake Griffin gets back most likely. Memphis will lose to teams like the Lakers, which they did last week, then beat the Warriors and Jazz, as they did over the weekend. The Thunder have figured out enough tricks to keep in the game, and Utah has the best advanced stats profile of any of them.

Again, tiebreakers are going to matter. Memphis is 4-3 vs. those other teams, Utah 2-3, OKC 2-3, the Clippers 4-3. It is not highly improbable that some segment of these teams wind up in a tie at season's end.

West 8th seed

Can we just give the No. 1 seed a bye? Please?

No?

OK.

So the Blazers lost to the Pistons, and are basically tied with the Kings, ahead in win percentage, still, at 16-22. Six games under .500 is the 8th seed in the mighty West. The Pelicans might have the best team of this group, and that's not comforting either. The upshot, I suppose, is that all of these teams have a chance at the playoffs, but that's not a great thing for the sport of basketball. It's pretty rough past spot No. 7 in the West.

What to watch this week -- Game(s) of the Week

Schedule

DATE AWAY HOME TIME TV/STREAM
Tuesday, Jan 10 7:30 p.m. ET NBATV

This Game Matters: Boston is one game back of the 2-seed thanks to Toronto's loss to Houston Sunday. The Raptors are in a bit of a tailspin. The Celtics are booming, but will be without Avery Bradley in this one due to injury. If Toronto wins, they move back up two games, and ensure that they won't lose tiebreaker to Boston, going up 2-0 in the season series. Boston can still come back to tie the season series, making division record (currently Raptors 5-0, Celtics 6-1) the deciding factor. So not only does this game matter for head-to-head tiebreaker, but even if they split the final two games as well, it could wind up deciding it through conference record.

Thunder Road: Oklahoma City has hit a bit of a dip at a bad time, as their January schedule gets progressively tougher. They need to fatten up the record a bit this week with games on the road vs. the Bulls (Monday, 8:00 p.m. ET, League Pass), the Wolves (Friday, 8:00 p.m. ET, League Pass) and the Kings (Sunday, 9:00 p.m. ET, League Pass) with a big home game vs. Memphis thrown in there (8:00 p.m. ET, ESPN). They need to go at least 2-2 at worst, and probably 3-1. Why? Next week: Clippers, Warriors, Jazz.

LeBron's Wild, Wild West Show: The Cavaliers head West with games vs. the Jazz (Tuesday, 9:00 p.m. ET, League Pass), Portland (Wednesday 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), and the Kings (Friday, 10:30 p.m. ET, League Pass). It's not a murderer's row, but that Jazz game should be fun. Most notably? This is a bunch of games packed up against one another on a West Coast road trip before... next week's rematch vs. the Warriors in Oracle.