The Phoenix Suns travel to Salt Lake City to face the Utah Jazz at Vivint Smart Home Arena on Monday.

The Suns (23-34) own a 3-3 record over their last six games but that ended an ugly four-game slide prior. The four-game stretch has been more common for this team this season rather than the .500 run and it's sad that such a talented team is struggling so mightily. Having Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton is obviously a great young core and it pairs nicely with guys like Kelly Oubre Jr and Ricky Rubio. That's way too good of a foursome to be sitting outside of playoff contention and one has to wonder just how much longer this franchise can deal with all this losing. That makes some believe that guys like Booker and Oubre are on their way out and that would just set this team back even further.

The Jazz (36-20) typically play much better at home and that's certainly been the case again this season. In fact, Utah owns a 20-7 record at VSHA this year, with most of that coming recently. What is strange about that is the fact that they enter this matchup losing two-straight, both at home. It came against the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs, giving them a 4-7 record over their last 11 games in total. That ironically followed up a stretch in which the Jazz won 21 of their previous 22 games and it's making this team difficult to figure out. That prior stretch got them all the way up to fifth in the west though, just two games back of the Denver Nuggets in second. Obviously, finishing second would be huge for a team who thrives at home, especially when they could drop all the way out of homecourt advantage altogether.

This marks the second meeting between these teams, with Utah prevailing, 96-95, on October 28. That gives the Jazz eight-straight wins over the Suns in total.