NBA: Early season surprises

The NBA regular season is already more than one-quarter over, believe it or not.

That means that there is plenty of basketball yet to be played, of course. Teams with losing records still have plenty of time to right the ship and make a playoff run. Others that are off to strong starts could falter.

Still, 20-plus games into the 82-game regular season, is enough time to spot some trends, some of which are surprising.

Here are 10 things that have come as a surprise one quarter of the way through the 2009-10 season:

1. The struggles of the San Antonio Spurs.

To be fair, the Spurs, at 11-9, are still two games above .500. Still, most thought San Antonio would challenge the Lakers for the best record in the Western Conference this season. The All-Star trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili was going to aided by the addition of yet another top scorer in Richard Jefferson.

Instead, the Spurs have looked simply old at times, Jefferson hasn't had as big of an impact as expected, and the team has just been average. Unless things change drastically — and they may well — the Spurs will just be another team fighting for a sixth, seventh or eighth seed in the playoffs.

Perhaps the biggest surprise has been the way Utah has dominated them. The Jazz never win in San Antonio and only win about half the time against the Spurs in Salt Lake City. So it would usually take three or four seasons for Utah to earn three victories against San Antonio. But here it is just one quarter of the way through the season, and the Jazz already have three wins over the Spurs, including their first at the AT&T Center.

2. The success of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The former Seattle SuperSonics finished dead last in the Northwest Division a year ago — even behind the Minnesota Timberwolves. They went 23-59 for the season, winning 28 percent of their games.

Led by young talent like Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, it's not surprising that the Thunder are better this season. But it is surprising that Oklahoma City, if the season ended today, would be a playoff team.

It's not just that Scott Brooks' club is beating up on the bad teams, either. The Thunder have wins over Orlando, San Antonio, Miami and at Utah among their dozen victories.

With the rise of Oklahoma City, suddenly the Northwest — generally considered the worst of the three Western divisions the past several years — may be the best. With Denver, Utah, Portland and Oklahoma City all above .500, only Minnesota brings the division down.