With their 11-point win over the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday night, the Utah Jazz have now won 10 straight games to improve to 28-12 and vault themselves into contention for a top-two seed in the Western Conference.

While this is the type of performance people expected from the Jazz before the season started, their play early on in the season said otherwise.

At one point, Utah had lost five of six and was getting absolutely shredded in its losses. But since then, the Jazz have won 15 of their last 16 contests, and this recent 10-game stretch has come without Mike Conley, who has been battling a hamstring injury.

Of course, there is a whole lot of “Utah is better without Conley” talk, which is understandable based on the way the Jazz have played without him, but it's still wrong.

Conley is a terrific point guard, and even if he was struggling over the first couple of months, there is every reason to believe he will provide Utah with a lift once he returns.

But what about everything else? Have things just “clicked?” Has the addition of Jordan Clarkson really been that significant? Or are the Jazz just playing a bunch of bad teams?

All of those things can be true.

Remember: Quin Snyder was trying to integrate a bunch of new pieces early on, so it's not surprising that the Jazz were laboring. Clarkson has also been huge, as he has been averaging 15 points per game off the bench since arriving. And, yes, Utah is beating up on bad teams, as nine of its 10 wins during this run have come against sub-.500 clubs.

Going further, of the last 15 wins, 14 of them have come at the expense of losing teams (and the one loss came to the Miami Heat, who have been one of the better teams in the NBA this season).

That's one heck of an easy slate, and things are about to get infinitely more difficult.

But 15 out of 16 is 15 out of 16 no matter how you slice it, and the fact that the Jazz haven't had any slip-ups against inferior competition over that span is impressive.

While I had the Jazz pegged as a top-three team in the conference along with the two Los Angeles teams, I didn't expect them to do it in this fashion, with Conley sidelined and Clarkson of all people playing the role of hero.

For those who are doubting Utah, let's keep in mind that Donovan Mitchell is really, really good, and Rudy Gobert is a defensive monster who can single-handedly change a playoff series. Bojan Bogdanovic and Joe Ingles, the latter of whom has righted himself after a rough start, are no slouches, either.

Plus, getting a healthy Conley back should only make this squad even tougher.

The Jazz may be taking advantage of a forgiving schedule, and Conley has yet to really kick it into gear, but make no mistake: this team is dangerous, and both the Clippers and the Lakers should take heed.