The Phoenix Suns aren’t lacking dramatic endings — or victories.

They once again found themselves in a tight one late only to come away with a fifth straight win, 118-116, over the Philadelphia 76ers before a sellout crowd of 17,071 Monday night at Footprint Center.

Kevin Durant completed a game-high 35-point performance with a driving basket to put the Suns (6-1) up two with 24 seconds left. Durant scored 15 of his 35 in the fourth on 6-of-8 shooting.

Phoenix closed the game with a defensive stop as Paul George missed a jumper and Tyrese Maxey misfired on a desperation 3 at the buzzer.

Six Suns reached double figures as Bradley Beal went for 17 points. Jusuf Nurkic posted a double-double of 15 points and 15 boards.

Royce O’Neale scored 15 points, going 3-of-4 from 3, Grayson Allen chipped in 13 and Devin Booker added 13 on a bleak 3-of-18 shooting.

Maxey led the 76ers (1-5) with 32 points, hitting 6-of-15 from deep, Guerschon Yabusele went for 19 off the bench while George added 15 in his 76ers debut.

Philadelphia still is without Joel Embiid, who hasn’t played this season as he’s been listed out with left knee injury management.

Here are five takeaways from Monday’s game. The Suns conclude a three-game homestand Wednesday against the Miami Heat at 7 p.m.

Durant in the clutch

Suns' point guard Tyus Jones talked after Monday's morning shootaround about having Booker, Durant and Beal is a luxury because they can “bail you out,” with their ability to score.

Hours later, Durant did just that with back-to-back baskets to win the game.

Jones also said being organized on offense is necessary.

“The more we can put them in better positions to give them space to put the ball in the basket, the better,” Jones said. “To answer your question, you probably can get away with it more, but we also don’t want to rely on that or put too much pressure on them to bail us out of tough situations."

Durant is always up for that challenge as is Booker and Beal. The problem is one of them shouldn’t have to do what Durant had to do in the fourth against a team that is without their best player.

The Suns have improved from a season ago, but they continue to have to find a way to win at the end. Their biggest margin of victory has been 12 points.

The rest of Phoenix’s victories have been by single digits.

As great as Durant is, the more the Suns can put teams away earlier, the more he’ll have in the tank when the time comes to take down some of the better teams with heroic play down the stretch.

14-3 closeout

Don’t know if Philadelphia lost this game or Phoenix won it.

The 76ers were ahead by nine, 113-104, on Yabusele’s fifth 3-pointer with 5:16 remaining. Yeah, that dude who was killing it for France in the Paris Olympics. That’s him, fro, headband and all.

Philadelphia missed five of their next six shots.

The Suns contributed to that as Beal did yeoman's work guarding Maxey all night, even with a bum elbow and shoulder, but the 76ers should've closed this out.

Even with that, the Sixers were up five with 2:04 left and then committed back-to-back turnovers. Kelly Oubre Jr. committed two fouls with 1:40 remaining.

Durant and Allen each made two free throws to pull the Suns within one, but here’s the crazy part. All of that happened in 24 seconds.

Had Philadelphia taken care of the ball and at least got a shot up, the Suns would've had less time to make their comeback and maybe be trailing by five if the 76ers scored on those two possessions.

Starting to think Philadelphia lost it, but Durant did deliver on Phoenix’s last two possessions with baskets and Allen came up with a huge offensive rebound to give the Suns a second crack at it.

Durant sized up Yabusele.

Barbeque chicken. Durant to the rim.

So maybe it’s a case of both. Then again, maybe not.

What’s going on with Booker?

Booker is coming off winning Western Conference Player of the Week after averaging 33.7 points in three wins last week, but he’s been ice-cold the last two games.

He went 9-of-23 from the field in Saturday’s win over Portland, going 2-of-10 from 3, but scored 28 points. Booker followed that up with an even worse shooting performance Monday, an 0-of-6 effort on 3s.

The looks seem good, but he’s looking to attack the rim more than in the past. It’s enabled him to get to the line more, but he’s taken more falls to the floor, too.

He’ll find his shot. That’s never been a problem as Booker has had bad stretches before, but it doesn’t seem as if he’s finding a rhythm.

Could be the substitution patterns. Booker has gone from playing the whole first quarter to coming out midway through it. Suns coach Mike Budenholzer has talked about taking into account what may happen at the end of a game and keeping guys fresh.

This may pay off down the road for Booker.

Nurkic double-double, but turnover trouble?

The double-double is nice for the big guy.

Hitting another 3 is good even if he’s now 4-of-19 from distance, but the turnovers are a problem.

Nurkic coughed it up five times Monday. Just being plain careless with the ball.

That can’t continue if the Suns are going to use him as a facilitator. The 7-footer has 26 turnovers in seven games, but he had the highest plus/minus of Monday’s game with plus 16.

Weird right?

The Suns went down the stretch with him instead of going small, but Nurkic had a really bad turnover late. He has to be better so the Suns don’t become even more dependent on small ball.

George debut, role in Philly

George made his 76ers debut after being out with a left knee bone bruise sustained in a preseason game.

We know the skill set. He can score on all three levels. He's 6-8 with the size and ability to get in the paint. Handles.

76ers coach Nick Nurse went into the game looking to play him in short bursts early and wasn’t trying to have George log heavy minutes.

He ended up playing 32 minutes. Not sure if he was scheduled to play that many, but Philadelphia is going to need him to perform at an elite level to compete with Boston and New York.

He’ll be the third option when Embiid comes back because Maxey is the clear No. 2 on this team.

Maxey is not only an All-Star, but one of the hardest guys to cover because of his speed, acceleration and trickiness with the ball. Much stronger this year, too.

The offense will run with Embiid, but Maxey likely will have the ball down the stretch because it’s a guard league. So, George is going to have to get in where he can fit and deliver in those moments when opponents double Embiid or Maxey.

This may be George’s last chance to win a championship. If the 76ers do so, he’ll be the X-factor. If they don’t, he’ll shoulder a sizeable amount of the blame.

Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suns win late again, top 76ers as Durant closes show, scores 35