Honestly, without Chris Paul, the Phoenix Suns did pretty well, losing just 3-3 to the New Orleans Pelicans, Utah Jazz and Milwaukee Bucks in the six games he missed. In these 6 games, the Suns ranked 9th in the league in offensive efficiency, 12th in the league in defensive efficiency, and 11th in the league in net efficiency (+4.1), which is not too good, but it is still passable.
The Suns' offense is actually good because a lot of their offensive stats are in the top ten, while Paul missed all 6 games and Devin Booker missed 3. They ranked 6th in points, 7th in shooting percentage, 3rd in three-point shooting and 3rd in assists. But despite this, since Paul's absence, the Suns have led or lost 1 big win and 3 narrow wins in the last few minutes of 7 games (including the one Paul withdrew halfway through) in the last few minutes of 6 games, with a big win and 3 narrow wins.
Cameron Payne has played well since returning to the Suns lineup and starting in the last three games, averaging 15 points and 10.7 assists per game while making just three turnovers, but his shots are still poor, shooting just 40 percent from the field and 31 percent from three-point range. But Payne isn't Paul after all, and Landry Shamet isn't Booker, so the Suns haven't performed well in key moments.
Before Paul was absent, the Suns were the league's number one in key moments, achieving the league's best 23-3 record in those key games (the last 5 minutes were within 5 points) and a win-win of 93 points in 80 minutes at key moments. This is nothing new for the Suns, who helped the Suns achieve a 20-5 record in key games after a run-in period with the team last season.
But since Paul fell, the Suns have only had a 3-2 record in key games (including the game against the Rockets). It's still good, but it's not good either. The win over the Thunder actually played only one key round, and the victory over the Knicks relied on Cameron Johnson's whistle-pressing three-pointer to kill the opponent.
Overall, the Suns have not performed well in key moments over the past two weeks without the help of Chris Paul, with the Suns losing four points in the last five 16-minute games (translated into the 80 minutes mentioned above, which is 20 points lost), and the only game that has performed well in key moments is the one with the Thunder, and it is clear that without the presence of Paul, the All-Star point guard, they cannot end the game at key moments.