{"id":48842,"date":"2022-11-27T08:00:02","date_gmt":"2022-11-27T13:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=48842"},"modified":"2022-11-26T16:05:51","modified_gmt":"2022-11-26T21:05:51","slug":"five-early-surprises-from-the-nba-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/11\/27\/five-early-surprises-from-the-nba-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Early Surprises From the NBA Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2022-23 NBA season has been full of surprises in the first two months. Some are good, some are bad, but all are entertaining. Teams that were thought to be tanking sit near the top of each conference, and exciting rookies have exploded onto the scene. Today we look at which teams in the NBA aren\u2019t supposed to be where they are. For better or worse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Five Early Surprises From the NBA Season<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Utah Jazz<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Utah Jazz were expected<\/a> to be players in the Victor Wembanyama<\/strong><\/a> sweepstakes after they moved on from superstars Donovan Mitchell<\/strong><\/a> and Rudy Gobert<\/strong><\/a> this summer. However, thanks to the terrific play of Lauri Markkanen<\/strong><\/a> and Jordan Clarkson,<\/strong><\/a> this team sits fourth <\/a>in the Western Conference standings. An injury to Mike Conley<\/strong><\/a> and a bad stretch (2-5) recently may have cooled this team down, but they remain only a half-game out of first place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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the Finnish \ud83d\udcf8<\/p>\n

a career-high 38 points for @MarkkanenLauri<\/a> #TakeNote<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/UqnChv00xN<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) November 19, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n