Here’s Arizona Sports on the Phoenix Suns starting the new NBA season with a lot more wins than anyone expected:

For a team with 10 new faces and a roster that is the second-most inexperienced in the NBA, the Suns, who were not expected to win much, won more than they lost through the first month of the season.

Their 9-8 record is ninth-best in the Western Conference; though if they resided in the East, they would trail only Indiana (16-1) and Miami (14-3) for top honors.

“I guess we can’t complain,” head coach Jeff Hornacek said. “We’re above .500 right now.”

The Suns are one of the early season surprises, while also at times puzzling to observers.

For example, they handed Portland, whose 14 wins are tied for the most in the conference, two of its three losses and battled Oklahoma City and San Antonio down to the wire before losing close games on the road.

Then there are the two defeats to Sacramento, which has only two other wins on the year, and a bad home loss to Utah, which had not won on the road before Saturday’s 122-104 victory at US Airways Center.