The All-Star Break is the NBA’s pseudo half-way mark of the season.

The reality is, only 30 per cent of the regular season remains.

With a break in the action, All-Star Weekend is a great opportunity to look back at preseason projections and evaluate the over and underperformers.

Here are the biggest outlier teams of the 2021-22 season.

Biggest Overachievers

Cleveland Cavaliers

Pre-Season Win Total: 27.5

Current Record: 35-23

Fire up the moneybag emojis, the Cavs are the first and only team to surpass their win total thus far, and they did it more than three weeks ago.

At 27.5 wins, oddsmakers expected Cleveland to win roughly a third of their regular-season games. As it stands, they have a 60.34 win percentage, making them easily the biggest overachievers this season. 

Even though they deserve that title, they surprisingly don’t have the NBA’s best record ATS. They’ve covered 61.8 per cent of games this season, the third-best mark behind Memphis and Oklahoma City.

Ricky Rubio and Lauri Markkanen were underrated off-season acquisitions who impacted the team’s success more than experts predicted.

Rookie Evan Mobley has exceeded all expectations, especially considering the concerns about his fit with Jarrett Allen.

Darius Garland has taken the leap to All-Star level, a critical jump responsible for Cleveland’s rise.

Oddsmakers projected the Cavs to finish 13th in the East. They’re currently 2.5 games out of first.

They own the East’s third-best net rating and allow the fewest points per game in the NBA.

Phoenix Suns

Pre-Season Win Total: 50.5

Current Record: 48-10

The Suns unexpectedly made it to the NBA Finals last year. This season, they look motivated to prove it wasn’t a fluke.

As the No. 1 team in the league, they are just three wins away from beating their preseason win total.

Phoenix essentially ran it back, with all their core players returning. The continuity is clearly paying off. The Chris Paul and Devin Booker backcourt combo remains the most bankable clutch-time duo in the league.

At 50.5 wins, they were projected to be third in the West and fifth league wide.

Their 8.1 net rating leads the league and, barring catastrophe, they’ll own home-court advantage all the way to the finals should they return.

They’ve been seventh best ATS.

Memphis Grizzlies

Pre-Season Win Total: 42.5

Current Record: 41-19

Ja Morant opened the season with some eye-popping performances, thrusting him to the top of the Most Improved Player discussion and going from +1400 in preseason to +230 by Week 4.

In late November he went down with a knee injury, leaving behind a Memphis team teetering at 9-10.

Somehow his injury lit a fire under his teammates, and the Grizzlies subsequently won 10 of their next 12 games before Morant returned.

Questions hung over Morant’s impact on winning. Concerns were voiced about his on/off splits.

Well, Memphis has gone 21-7 since his return on Dec. 20.

Morant deserves a lot of the credit for their success, but Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. have elevated their games much faster than anticipated.

Bane has gone from 9.2 points per game to 17.9 points per game this season.

Jackson Jr. deserves attention for recovering from a season-long meniscus injury last season to being in the DPOY conversation at +700.

The Grizzlies have been No. 1 team ATS this year, covering 66.7 per cent of their games.

After making a splash in the play-in tournament last season, they’re third out West with a serious chance to overtake the Warriors at No. 2.

Toronto Raptors

Pre-Season Win Total: 37.5      

Current Record: 32-25

Six teams have overachieved more than the Raptors, but credit is due to Toronto for persevering through all the injuries they’ve dealt with this season.

Kyle Lowry was the backbone of this team for almost a decade, so it was understandable to question how the baton would be passed.

Well, Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam have seamlessly taken over that leadership role.

FVV is the first undrafted All-Star player since Ben Wallace.

Siakam heads into the break in the best form of his life: 26.1 points, 9.5 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 1.7 steals, 58.1 field-goal percentage over the last month.

After dropping as far back as +15000 to win the Atlantic, the Raps are two games out priced at +700 for the division.

They’ve been fifth best ATS on the year.

Biggest Underachievers

Indiana Pacers

Pre-Season Win Total: 42.5

Current Record: 20-40

The Pacers have been the biggest underachievers of the 2021-22 NBA season. They are one of three teams already mathematically guaranteed to miss their win total.

Injuries are the key reason why Indiana couldn’t meet expectations. Here are the games missed by their optimal starting lineup:

Malcolm Brogdon - 32

Caris LeVert - 17

TJ Warren - 60

Domantas Sabonis - 9

Myles Turner - 18

Moving forward, the future is bright with Tyrese Haliburton getting a fresh start with the Pacers. If Buddy Hield can regain his old shooting stroke, there’s a lot to be optimistic about.

For now, their season is a lost cause and will pivot to player development.

Indiana has been surprisingly average ATS with a 28-30-2 record.

Los Angeles Lakers

Pre-Season Win Total: 51.5

Current Record: 27-31

While the Lakers aren’t mathematically the most underachieving team this season, they get the most heat in the media for their poor performance.

All the concerns about fit in the off-season came true.

Russell Westbrook is having his worst season since 2010. The Lakers haven’t found complimentary role players for their big three.

Pepper in multiple absences from LeBron James and Anthony Davis and you get a recipe for disaster.

Oddsmakers have adjusted for their lackadaisical play; Los Angeles is only 26-32 ATS. With all the noise, you’d expect that record to be worse.

They’ve been particularly bad against lottery-bound teams going 14-22 in games as a favourite.

Brooklyn Nets

Pre-Season Win Total: 55.5

Current Record: 31-28

Watching the Nets go through their 11-game losing streak makes you realize how much duct tape was used to hold everything together.

Kevin Durant was having an MVP season, averaging 36.5 mpg, his most in eight years.

James Harden was struggling to adjust to his new role and threw in the towel after KD went down.

It feels like eons ago, but up until a week prior to NBA opening night, Kyrie Irving was always expected to suit up. His decision has unfortunately become the storyline for the franchise.

The defining nugget of this entire era will be the Brooklyn ‘Big Three’ playing a combined 16 games together.

Up until Durant’s injury, the Nets were sustaining with a 27-15 record.

Since then, Brooklyn has a 4-12 record straight up and seen their ATS record slide to 22-35-1, the worst in the NBA.

Just like the two above, the Nets are also mathematically guaranteed to hit the under.