Previous leaders Reading lost out against Loughborough, with Hemel and Derby now joining the Rockets on 10 points after both sides won this weekend.
We take a look back at all the weekend's action below, with links to live stats at the bottom of the page.
Bradford Dragons remain rooted to the bottom of D1M after their fifth loss in a row, going down 92-84 to City of Birmingham Rockets on Saturday.
A 23-17 opening frame gave the hosts reason for optimism but dropping the third quarter 31-20 would allow CoB to move ahead by double digits, holding on the rest of the way for their fourth win of the campaign.
Orlan Jackman (17pts, 8reb, 8ast) showed his quality for the Rockets as he neared a triple-double, with Lucas McGregor (21pts) leading all scorers off the back of four triples.
Bradford pushed six players to 10 or more points as Micah Savery-Richards (18pts, 7reb) led the way for the Dragons alongside Kofi Josephs (13pts, 7ast, 6reb), but their balanced attack wouldn't be enough to get the hosts over the line.
A road game now awaits the Dragons next weekend as they head to the next closest team to them in the standings, Worthing Thunder, for an early-season crunch tie at the foot of the standings.
The win for Birmingham takes them into the top four, they'll now move on to host Newcastle Knights next Saturday.
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Derby Trailblazers (5-1) moved into a share of top spot as they earned a hard-fought 79-70 road win against Newcastle Knights (2-4).
Raheem May-Thompson (31pts, 7reb) produced one of the performances of the weekend to get DTB their fifth win in a row, cancelling out 29 points from Newcastle's Ronald Blain.
Twenty-five points from Denzel Ubiaro and 20 more from Jules Akodo allowed Bristol Hurricanes (3-3) to ease past Nottingham Hoods (2-4) 87-74, though the Midlanders did manage to pull to within three in the final quarter before the hosts put the game to bed for their third W of the season.
Current leaders Reading Rockets (5-2) couldn't keep pace at the top as they slipped to a 70-58 loss against Loughborough Riders (2-2).
Reading went cold to shoot just 27% in the contest, with Victor Ndoukou (19pts, 8reb), Justin Hedley (15pts, 8reb) and Michael Joiner (15pts, 6reb) all profiting at the Rockets' expense.
Worthing Thunder (1-5) couldn't back up last weekend's victory over Thames Valley with further success as they fell 82-76 against Essex Rebels (3-3).
Daljang Wol (15pts, 10reb), Emmanuel Kanwei (14pts, 10reb) and Daniel Johnson-Thompson (12pts, 15reb) all put up double-doubles for the Rebels, with the hosts winning the battle on the glass 64-45 in the process.
Saturday closed with another great contest between Hemel Storm (5-0) and Milton Keynes Breakers (2-3), with Storm keeping their perfect record to start the season intact thanks to an 88-68 win.
Hemel avenged their KitKing semi-final loss thanks to a 32-17 third period and 29 points from Tra'Michael Moton, who splashed 5/7 shots from beyond the arc for a game-high points haul.
2pm - Newcastle Knights 70-79 Derby Trailblazers - LIVE STATS / LIVE STREAM
5:30pm - Bristol Hurricanes 87-74 Nottingham Hoods - LIVE STATS
6pm - Loughborough Riders 70-58 Reading Rockets - LIVE STATS / LIVE STREAM
6:15pm - Bradford Dragons 84-92 City of Birmingham Rockets - LIVE STATS
6:30pm - Essex Rebels 82-76 Worthing Thunder - LIVE STATS / TICKETS
7pm - Hemel Storm 88-68 Milton Keynes Breakers - LIVE STATS / TICKETS
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Main image credit - Nick Higgins
