A day of drama has ended in a night of heartbreak for the NBL's Sydney Kings, who fell 90-88 to Melbourne United after a game-winning basket to Jack White in the final two seconds.
Hours after a failed medical assessment left Sydney to cut mid-season recruit and would-be NBL debutant Lamonte Turner, the Kings cried out for a point guard of the American's ilk against fast-starting United.
But after trailing by 20 points in the third quarter on Thursday, the Kings closed to within six points at the final change thanks to a 14-2 run inspired by Xavier Cooks (21 points, 10 rebounds) and Alex Toohey (10 points).
When Kouat Noi was fouled on the arc and went to the charity stripe for three shots, the NBL's comeback kings closed to within three points in the final 30 seconds and dared to dream of another ambush.
United sharpshooter Chris Goulding then inexplicably turned the ball over with a lob up the court, paving the way for Izayah Le'Afa to shake off a horror night of shooting and land a triple that tied the game with four seconds to play.
But from the inbound play, United's Matthew Dellavedova (11 points, eight assists) found White (23 points, 10 rebounds) under the basket for the former NBA forward to put up the game-winning lay-up.
The Kings were left to rue a slow start, coming up with a staggering 11 turnovers in the first half to finish with 15 for that statistic.
Creativity was also a problem for the Kings as Melbourne built their crucial early lead. At halftime, Dellavedova (seven) had produced more assists than the entire Kings team (six).
Marcus Lee cleans up Chris Goulding's missed shot with a huge putback dunk for Melbourne United.
The third-placed Kings missed a chance to move into second spot on the ladder - the cut-off for automatic qualification for the playoffs - and are at risk of falling behind ladder-leading Illawarra and United in second spot.
The Kings have not defeated either of those teams from a combined six meetings this season.
The match was Kings master mentor Brian Goorjian's 850th in the NBL across his time as player and coach, with six championship wins counting among his 826 as coach.