Overachievers and Underachievers in the NBA

By Mark Singleton

I'm so glad that the basketball season has finally begun. This is my favorite sport of them all, and even the first few games get me excited thinking about the possibilities that lie ahead.

Let's take a look at some of the surprises we've seen thus far. We'll look at pleasant surprises, in addition to some underachieving trends we've seen too.

If you've been keeping up with the league, you've probably noticed that the Suns are tearing it up on the courts. Few people remember that this team was considered a championship contender even just two seasons ago, yet they missed the playoffs last year.

Despite the loss of Shaq in the off season, Phoenix is playing some great basketball. It makes you wonder if the team might be better off without him.

Many laughed at the Oklahoma City Thunder last season, as they had one of the worst records in basketball. Few people noticed that this team gradually improved through the course of the year.

What people didn't expect was for the team to start winning games this season. Having won their first two games, the Thunder surprised many fans with wins over the Kings and Pistons.

With wins over the Kings and the Pistons (this one was on the road), they got off to a 2-0 start. Nearly beating the Lakers after this was perhaps the team's best achievement.

There's one more team for us to review, and this is one that seems to be struggling. The Cleveland Cavs dominated the regular season last year, but 09-10 seems to have brought just the opposite to start things out.

With some losses to the Celtics and the Raptors, people had to wonder what was going on in Cleveland. While the team has won its three games since those losses, they've all come against relatively weak opponents. - 31494

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