The worrying aspect of the Suns' amazing start to the season

The Phoenix Suns moved to a Western Conference best 8-1 on Friday night, with a second victory of the season over the Dallas Mavericks. This 114-113 win coming in controversial circumstances away from home, as the Suns earned two free-throws just as time expired to ice the game.

Center Jusuf Nurkic - who keeps on proving the doubters wrong - managed to nail the all important second one, to give the Suns the narrowest of victories. Prior to that Kevin Durant had nailed a 3-pointer in "clutch time" to add to his sterling start to the campaign, and the Suns continue to keep rolling.

Those clutch moments are certainly worth monitoring though.

One of the main knocks on the Suns last season was that they failed to kill off opponents, oftentimes reverting back to hero ball once they had established a sizeable lead. In their only loss of this season to date - against the Los Angeles Lakers - the same thing happened as they led by as many as 22 in the second-quarter, but ultimately lost the game.

We can't be too critical of this - they've won every other matchup after all - and head coach Mike Budenholzer deserves a ton of credit for that. He also should be commended for having this veteran-heavy roster able to carve out close wins, which they have most certainly done.

Of their nine games played so far, seven have gone into the NBA's "clutch time", which means there were five points or fewer between the two sides in the fourth-quarter or overtime, and five minutes or less remaining in the game. In contrast the Cleveland Cavaliers - a hugely impressive 10-0 on the young season - have been involved in these types of games on only three occasions.

But is this actually a good thing? What the Suns certainly have going in their favor is the play of Kevin Durant, who at 36-years-old looks as comfortable as ever win the ball in his hands in these situations. There's likely a good reason for that too - with Devin Booker no longer being forced to play the point guard - the hierarcy has been established between the two.

Booker is the franchise cornerstone and the best player. The face of the city. But if the team needs a bucket of any kind late in the game, Durant is now the guy they turn to. He's shooting 63.2 percent from the field in these situations, with a rating of plus 4.1 in those contests.

Booker in comparison is convering on only 37.5 percent of his shots, although he is sitting at plus 4.4, a team-high for all players who qualify. The Suns haven't exactly had an easy start to the season either, playing the Mavericks, Lakers and L.A. Clippers twice, with tilts against above average Eastern Conference opposition in the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers in there too.

There are some easier games on the horizon, but the smart money is on these kind of clutch time performances being unsustainable. The remedy to this then is putting opponents away earlier, so that they don't need to rely on the late game heroics of Durant and Booker to get the job done.

Then again, that's exactly why the organization has both of these guys on their roster. They can score in difficult ways when a game is close, which is in direct contrast to the more 3-point heavy way that coach Bud wants to play. This is not meant to paint the wins in a negative light - this has been an incredible start - but the Suns need to find simpler ways to win games before the math trends against them.