From Dennis Velasco,
Your Guide to Basketball.
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The All-Star break is a good time for reflection. Who are your surprise teams of the season so far, both good and bad?

Atma Brother #1: The Wonderful Surprise - Houston Rockets. No Yao? No T-Mac? No problem. These guys have hung tough despite injuries to their two All-Stars and have a chance at finishing the season with a better record than the San Antonio Snores.

The Good Surprise - Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns. We all knew they were good, but who knew they were this much better than everyone else? The Western Conference Finals are going to be a dandy.

The Bad Surprise - Los Angeles Clippers. Weren't the Paper Clips supposed to be the best team in L.A. by a mile this season? Weren't they supposed to be a legitimate force in the West? Instead, they'll be lucky to make the playoffs as a 7th or 8th seed this year.

The Ugly Surprise - Memphis Grizzlies. Wasn't their great Fratello defense supposed to carry them while Pau Gasol was out? It's been an ugly, ugly season in Memphis.

Dave: You have to be surprised that the Knicks and Blazers have matched last year's win totals already, but I'd probably go with Detroit leading the East handily as my big surprise. I knew they'd still be good, but I thought without Big Ben they'd trail some teams.

Miami would be the surprise to the negative. You figure Shaq was getting older and all, but to have last year's champions below .500 and in a dogfight for the final playoff seed is still a shock.

Matt: Hands down the most surprising team has to be the New Jersey Nets. Touted as a possible contender in the East and the odds-on favorite to win the Atlantic, Jay Z's boys have done nothing but disappoint. They've had some big issues to deal with – the bizarre Kidd divorce, a pre-Amaechi gay rumor, Josh Boone's hair – but that’s no excuse. And don't give me that B.S. about Nenad Krstic’s torn ACL crippling the entire team since they were only 11-15 with him holding down the low block. If the season ended today, Jersey wouldn’t be in the playoffs and that’s just pathetic.

The other surprise has to be Toronto. From the instant he stepped off that transcontinental flight to Canada, GM Bryan Colangelo has done everything in his power to turn the Raptors into a winner. It actually shouldn't be that shocking that they're doing well given Colangelo's early moves and the presence of a maturing cornerstone in Chris Bosh. Who would have thought hat the melting pot of players from all over the world could jell so quickly. They're on top of the Atlantic (and should win it) and holding down that four seed with authority.

Mike P: Both of my surprise teams come from the Atlantic Division. Toronto has surprised me in a good way, as I didn't expect them to be this good this quick. It seemed to me that they would take a while to incorporate all of their new parts, but it's come together much quicker than I expected. I'm also shocked that they're doing this with Sam Mitchell as the head coach. It seemed that Bryan Colangelo's style was counterintuitive to Mitchell's, but the Raptors are improving significantly on defense even with the presence of mostly offensive-first players.

New Jersey has surprised me in a bad way. I understand that they've suffered a couple of key injuries, but they were pretty mediocre even when healthy. I thought Nenad Krstic would take another step, but before going down, he really wasn't much better than last year. More surprising to me has been the play of Vince Carter. I expected him to take the league by storm in his contract year, but he really has been mediocre for his standards.

Ryan: I think the biggest positive surprise so far has been my Raptors (I'm aware that most people read that statement and screamed "homer" at their computer screens but bare with me). Heading into the season, most writers and fans were predicting 25-30 wins for the Raps and a place at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, but they already have 28 wins a few days before the All-Star break and a four game lead atop the Atlantic Division. If that doesn't qualify as a surprise team I don't know what does.

In the Western Conference I think the Utah Jazz have to be viewed as a big surprise team. Heading into the season they weren't getting a lot of love, but now they are viewed as one of the top teams in the league. In fact, heading into the season only four of the 16 "experts" that ESPN polled thought that Utah would win their division. Jerry Sloan has been able to get Mehmet Okur, Carlos Boozer, and Deron Williams playing at high levels and it's only a matter of time before Andrei Kirilenko puts things together (he's averaging career lows in points, three-point field goal percentage, and steals). Once Sloan has all of his starters firing on all cylinders the Jazz will be tough for any team to beat in the playoffs.