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With the first month of the season just about in the books, we see both defending conference champs humming along - as expected. Detroit rocketed out to an 8-0 start. The Spurs are 10-3, winning five of their last six. Also getting out of the gates nicely are Dallas and Indianapolis. All the aforementioned clubs qualify as usual suspects.

What about some of the surprises?

Well, there are the Los Angeles Clippers. Mike Dunleavy's troops sit atop the Pacific these days and look like a team strong enough to remain there quite a while. LA's "other" team is doing damage thanks to Elton Brand and a commitment to defense. Brand is a known commodity, a premier power forward, typically providing 20 and 10.

The Clips, to this point, play some of the best defense in the league, leading the NBA in opponent FG percentage.

Cleveland is also doing well these days. Few NBA clubs are tougher at home than the Cavs. When playing in The Q, the team wins by about 17 points.

And LeBron James is utterly Herculean (as if you didn't already know). How the King manages to shoot 50 percent with all he's asked to do while garnering such attention is beyond me. Forget age. What mortal does that?

And then there is Memphis.

The Grizzlies are one of the league's forgotten quality teams. Their locale might have something to do with that. Perhaps it's a lack of tradition, winning or otherwise. Their division, the Southwest, is a minefield. The trio of Texas teams makes it so.

The Grizzlies go about their business, quietly. Mike Fratello is getting quite a bit from his lunch pails. His team plays very hard every night out. Shane Battier and the boys will outwork just about anyone. They muck it up and work for every scrap.

Their play is anything but small market.

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