PHOENIX — Week four of the 2024-25 NBA season is now upon us. With that, the Phoenix Suns are looking for a start to the season that could mirror the historic 64-win effort just three seasons ago.

The Suns’ 8-2 start to the campaign happens to be the fourth-best of anyone in the association, behind the dominant Cleveland Cavaliers, the defending champion Boston Celtics and a top team in the West they’ll face this week.

This could very well be a challenging week for the Suns without any exacerbating factors, but the absence of Kevin Durant will do just that — especially with all four games on the road.

A quick preview of all four teams on the roster for the Suns in the coming days – all of which will be road games:

This will serve as the opening game of the 2024 NBA Cup bracket – which the Suns have a fantastic chance to win if they take care of business tonight.

The Jazz are now 2-7 on the year after starting the season 0-6 – with injury woes, stagnant offense and a long-term regression from Lauri Markkanen being key factors in their hot start to the new year.

Don’t let that distract from the fact that the Jazz have been a frequent thorn in the side of the Suns in recent years, as the wide-open, spaced offense has been a tough matchup for a Phoenix team that usually doesn’t rank 99 -percentile athletes.

This game can’t be taken lightly, but the Suns should be able to secure a win despite being without Durant.

This will be a game where Phoenix tries to return the favor just days after Sacramento snapped a seven-game winning streak that began on October 26th.

The Kings followed up Sunday night’s win with a loss last night at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs — and will be without Malik Monk for at least the next two weeks.

However, Sacramento remains a quality team in space and pace that could force the Suns to overdrive offensively to win the game.

This is game two of the NBA Cup bracket – and Phoenix could get a favorable matchup here.

OKC was already without Isaiah Hartenstein, who suffered a broken hand during the preseason roster — losing Chet Holmgren to a fractured pelvis on Sunday was another gut punch.

With that, Oklahoma City could very well field an undersized lineup — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the tallest player in the starting lineup in a win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night.

This could be a great opportunity for the Suns to dictate play inside the paint, but that could very well be a double-edged sword as well. The Thunder’s athleticism and explosiveness are plentiful all over the roster. That could leave defenses stretched thin on the perimeter — and Mark Daignuealt is notorious for exposing glaring mismatches.

This will be the first time the Suns and Wolves have met since Minnesota swept the Suns in the first round of the playoffs in late April.

Minnesota has had a pretty bizarre season so far – the results have been hardly consistent as the team tries to adjust from Karl-Anthony Towns to Julius Randle.

Naz Reid, Donte DiVincenzo and Nickeil Alexander-Walker also make for one of the best bench trios in basketball, while Anthony Edwards began his fifth campaign shooting at Stephen Curry-like levels since 2016 — nearly 12 three-point attempts per game at a 46% clip.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the move to Randle can affect this matchup, at least as far as the regular season is concerned.

This game will be a Sunday afternoon matchup so Phoenix can return home in time for a home date with the Orlando Magic on November 18th.