American forward Zylan Cheatham may prove the bigger loss, after NZ Breakers slumped to their third straight Aussie NBL defeat, falling 97-85 to Adelaide 36ers at Auckland's Spark Arena.
The home side led 73-70 in the final quarter, when Cheathem suffered an injury to his right leg, after attempting a three-point shot, and had to be assisted off the court, leaving his team to defend their slender advantage down the stretch.
The Sixers went on an immediate eight-point run that carried them clear of their rivals, who were never able to regroup from the loss of their frontcourt kingpin.
"It's too early," said coach Mody Maor. "We'll pray for good news.
"Zylan's a focal point for us in everything that we do, he's also one of our leaders, one of our best competitors. To see him go down like this, I think deflated us.
"New team, new people, new leaders... these are the kinds of things that we need to learn to deal with."
After winning their season-opener over Cairns Taipans, the Breakers lost to Brisbane Bullets and Melbourne United, with a distracting NBA pre-season road trip in between, but were well placed against Adelaide, building a nine-point advantage in the second quarter and leading 71-70 into the final stanza.
They forced the Sixers into 23 turnovers, including eight alone to American Jacob Wiley, and put up 17 more shots than their opponents, converting only 45 percent.
The Breakers were punished 24-14 by the referees in the foul count, with Adelaide converting 27/29 from the free-throw line, compared to 12/20 for the hosts.
Former NBA forward Anthony Lamb continued to work his way into the rotation from the bench, leading all scorers with 25 points, while point guard Will McDowell-White dished out 11 assists, but shot just 1/11 from the field.
Cheatham had 17 points and eight rebounds before he left the game and has been his team's rebound leader this season.
The Breakers have either led or tied for the lead in the final quarters of all three defeats, and must now rally to face South East Melbourne Phoenix on the road on Saturday.
Adelaide 36ers 97 (Vasiljevic 24, Humphries 17, Wiley 12) NZ Breakers 85 (Lamb 25, Cheatham 17, Delany 17)
