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There have been some major surprises at the start of the NBA season. The Clippers and Bucks going 8-2 combined out of the gate has many shaking their heads. Others are surprised by the Wizards 4-1 start - those that are misunderstand just how good a coach Eddie Jordan is.

But the much of the NBA season is just as everyone expected. The two best teams are still the Pistons and the Spurs, and Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant, as good as they are, still cannot carry a team all by themselves. And, the Hawks, well they are still just the Hawks.

Friday night the Spurs hammered the Celtics in Boston, 103-82, pushing San Antonio to 5-1 on the season. That victory was classic ongoing NBA expectation. The win was the Spurs 16th in a row over the Celtics, a playoff team in the East a year ago, but no where's near the Spurs caliber. The last time the Celtics beat San Antonio, M.L. Carr was coaching the Celtics to a 15-67 season and hopefully the number one pick in the draft. Somehow, San Antonio slipped into the top spot, grabbed Tim Duncan, and well, the rest is history.

Perhaps the most telling aspect of the Spurs strength came from the Tim Duncan versus Mark Blount match-up. Blount was off to a good start for the season and is a credible center in the new NBA era. But on Friday night, Blount scored 3 points, took home one rebound, and was totally dominated by Duncan, who went for 29 points and 12 boards. Throw in the likes of Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli, a great coach in Gregg Popovich, and the fact that Duncan isn't just good, he is coachable, and well the title again goes through San Antonio this season.

The Pistons at 6-0 remain the league's only unbeaten team, though they have had a few close calls. But Detroit is already 4-0 on the road this season and of course are now in their third year with the same starting line-up.

In Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace and Tayshun Prince, Detroit has three of the best two-way players in the game. Along with the scoring of Rip Hamilton, a human dynamo that never stops moving, and the defense and rebounding of Ben Wallace, this is a team with the type of balance that will once again go deep into the playoffs, if not win it all.

Detroit also has a the traditional advantage that comes with a new coach. The Pistons will do well with a new, fresh voice and different ideas and schemes, retaining the best of Larry Brown for at least the year while growing under the underrated Flip Saunders.

With the 76ers topping the Lakers in Philadelphia Saturday night, those two aspiring playoff teams are now both 3-3 on the season. Such a .500 record could be good enough for the Sixers in the East while the Lakers will need to do better in the West to sneak in. Iverson went for 34 in 45 minutes to carry Philadelphia, while Bryant had 17 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists in the 85-81 loss. As good as those two are, they simply do not have enough surrounding talent to make these teams viable contenders.

Then, we move to the Hawks, they with one of the top draft choices a year ago, an excellent young player in Al Harrington, and the key acquisition of Joe Johnson in the off-season. Top pick Marvin Williams is just 19 in a league that eats its young. He is averaging a credible 7 points and 4.8 rebounds a game in 28 minutes per outing. Joe Johnson has produced 20 points per game for the Hawks but he has just 24 assists to 20 turnovers through the first five games.

The Hawks could actually become competitive as the year progresses, provided the key players can remain from getting discouraged during the front half of the season. They are young and athletic, two attributes that are meaningless in one way but absolutely necessary in another, so they will be an interesting team to keep an eye on as the year progresses. Then again, weak coaching or a lack of resiliency could have this team challenging for the one of the worst records of all times.