PHOENIX – Tonight is opening night for the second annual NBA-wide Emirates NBA Cup. The Phoenix Suns will play four group games between now and December 3 in an attempt to once again advance to the Round of 16.

The Suns will be without star F Kevin Durant for at least two of the four games scheduled to take place Tuesday and Friday night, which must be taken into account when looking to predict how the results will pan out.

Without further ado, here is a prediction on how the group game will play out:

To many, this contest might seem like a trap game: the opening game of a back-to-back group game. Being faced with a team that has been particularly difficult for the Suns in recent history. There are also questions about how the depth will increase/be utilized – as Royce O’Neale is coming off his first ineffective game on the field all season, and Tyus Jones put up a hurricane effort Sunday night just for the team to fail in overtime.

Phoenix is ​​still 8-2 despite all the concerns. Expect O’Neale and Ryan Dunn to do a better job of bottling up Utah’s shot creators such as Jordan Clarkson – that just wasn’t a possibility for Phoenix in more shortstops before this season.

Expect Devin Booker to have a good game as a scorer on top of all the aforementioned factors – and expect Phoenix to pull off a blowout victory before heading to Sacramento for a Wednesday night rematch with the Kings.

This is a difficult question to predict.

As mentioned in the preview of the coming week, OKC is quite compromised in the first zone. Isaiah Hartenstein has yet to wear his jersey in the regular season. Star F/C Chet Holmgren will be out for approximately two months. Jaylin Williams is out of commission.

This will lead the Thunder to deploy numerous small-ball lineups – which could be exploited by the Suns’ trio of Jusuf Nurkic, Mason Plumlee and Oso Ighodaro.

While this seems like a great horizontal matchup on paper, Mark Dagneault’s innovative system could lead to a plethora of guards and wings using size as an advantage to take advantage of the tradeoff in terms of athleticism. Jalen Williams, Aaron Wiggins and even Cason Wallace could see mismatches that could be a great equalizer here.

Either way, the Suns should be locked in a close game here — and it’s reasonable to have faith in the team that has been the better half-court offense thus far.

Los Angeles and Phoenix have been locked in two games so far this season, so this is sure to be another game that goes down to the last minute of action.

Los Angeles has been up and down since a 3-0 start to the season, but it’s also hard to ignore the innate advantage they have against the Suns with the presence of Anthony Davis.

This mismatch can be reversed for Phoenix with the undoubted advantages in depth and backcourt – but it just feels like Davis can propel the Lakers over the finish line again.

The Spurs pose yet another interesting challenge for the Suns: San Antonio notably stole three of the four games between the two last season while also adding significant talent around star C/F Victor Wembanyama in his second season in the league .

Although San Antonio is more talented than last year, the Suns are also performing better.

San Antonio was able to exploit Phoenix’s lack of depth, while playing an aggressive defense that tore up the Suns’ lack of established court generals.

The addition of Tyus Jones and a fortified bench have made the Suns a much deeper, well-organized team, usually capable of overcoming a game-changer such as Wembanyama — and that will happen here.

These results would put the Suns at a 3-1 record with a +27 point differential. They would be in a good position to qualify for the knockout stage as group winner or the West’s sole wild card representative, while continuing to rack up crucial wins in the regular season.