PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns are nearly set for Monday night basketball against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Both sides are suffering from injuries, as the Suns are without Mark Williams and Oso Ighodaro while the Thunder are down quite a few stars — you can read more about that here.

The Thunder are still favorites over Phoenix, though the Suns are hoping this starting lineup can manage an upset win over Oklahoma City:

Suns Reveal Starters vs Thunder

• Jalen Green
• Devin Booker
• Dillon Brooks
• Miles Bridges
• Khaman Maluach

The Suns, 1-1 on the year, have plenty of talk around their starting lineup. However, Devin Booker says that group of five can learn a thing or two from Phoenix's bench players after another questionable outing on Saturday.

“I’d say right now, they have more of a chemistry than our first group. I think typically that’s how teams are. You know, you play against those guys everyday in practice and they know each other. Like white on rice, they have been guarding Collin and Oso (Ighodaro), having Goodie pick me up for some time now. So I know how special of players they are," said Booker after the win against Golden State.

"And every time we share the court together, I always enjoy that. You can feel the crowd get involved, the ball's hopping around and the defense is at a high level. So, you know, us as the first unit, I think need to learn from them in a way. And the type that they play, everybody sacrifices in those groups and you see the result that you get out of it."  

Phoenix is again counting on Maluach with Williams and Ighodaro out. The second-year center has been the subject of plenty of discussions, though head coach Jordan Ott said after the win against Golden State that Maluach is made of the right stuff.

"First off, just the resilience to just keep coming back to work. He's got that already in him, so he's only going to continue to get better, and then not run from it. Like every night's going to be different, tonight's split game was a little bit different. Our prep into this game was a little bit different because we didn't know who they were playing, and it's never going to stop in this league," Ott said of Maluach.

"The next night's a really good team. End of the week's a really good team. He's going to continue to progress because he's about the right stuff. We're going to continue to put him in the environments, try to prepare him the best he can, but nothing replaces what he just has to go through each night. The physicality, the environment, the communication piece when it's super loud. I think that's something that came up multiple times tonight. And then at the end of the day, you got to protect the rim at a high level. In that second half, he had some of those possessions where just his sheer size helps us, and we're gonna need more of it."

Suns-Thunder is set for a 5:00 pm tip time (MST) at Paycom Center.