"Hard to swallow": Goorjian reflects on the one that got away

Brian Goorjian and his Sydney Kings blew a chance to secure a crucial win on Sunday, and it cut the legendary coach deep the way it played out. Still, he was encouraged by how his team performed up until that nightmare finish.

The Kings were back home at Qudos Bank Arena and had the Tasmania JackJumpers on the ropes, leading by 16 points early in the fourth quarter when Jaylin Galloway hit a three-pointer. Sydney was still up by 11 with three minutes remaining but wouldn’t score again, as the JackJumpers closed the game with the last 12 points.

Nick Marshall hit the winning bucket after Xavier Cooks’ inbounds pass went straight to Will Magnay with 6.5 seconds left. Just before that, 82 per cent free-throw shooter Kouat Noi missed both at the line, and before that, Tim Soares and Galloway missed good looks that could have sealed the result.

It was a heartbreaking loss, but given how close Sydney came to victory, Goorjian still found positives in the performance despite the pain.

"It's really hard to talk right now, it's hard to take it all in and we worked really hard, and this game was really big for us and we addressed a lot of things," Goorjian said.

"I thought the guys did a great job, I love the team and I thought we played a great game of basketball.

"I had no timeouts left with the ball out from the side and we had the right guy taking the ball out of bounds, and the right guy we were throwing the ball to, but the next thing I know they are laying it in. It's a real hard one to swallow, but I like the way we played."

Understandably, Goorjian was asked post-match about how Cooks was holding up after that costly inbounds turnover that ended the game, but the coach didn’t want to pin the loss on that moment alone.

Given the Kings had a 16-point lead in the fourth and didn’t score for the final three minutes, there was more than one factor that cost them the win, even though they attempted 15 more field goals than Tasmania.

"The whole team, myself and everyone, it cuts real deep, but the games are coming and I love the way he (Cooks) played tonight and I love our group," Goorjian said.

"How he feels, you could point to a lot of situations down that last two or three minutes that would have iced the game, and all of them didn’t happen. I know he's down, but no more than the rest of the group when you walk into that locker room."