Defending NBL champions Melbourne have regained top spot heading into Christmas, but there will be no festive cheer for perennial contenders Perth following a fourth straight loss.
United (11-5) came from 11 points down to beat Sydney 75-70 on Sunday at Qudos Bank Arena in front of 12, 050 fans - the biggest stand alone home crowd in Kings' history.
The win pushed Sydney (10-5) out of first and put United on top.
Perth (11-6) surrendered a 15-point lead to lose 81-77, scoring just nine in the final quarter.
That followed a 93-86 away loss to Brisbane (8-7) on Friday.
Conversely, resurgent Melbourne have rediscovered their defensive mojo in successive away games against their two closest challengers.
They limited Perth to 65 points in the last round and restricted Sydney to just 23 in the second half of Sunday's game.
"There's obviously still more we need to do but we're trending in the right direction," said Melbourne captain Chris Goulding, who scored a game-high 16 against the Kings.
"We're starting to see the results if you lock down and play the right way."
Melbourne have won ten straight against Sydney, but Kings coach Andrew Gaze denied United had a mental edge over his club.
With eight out of 18 rounds left, Gaze said only Cairns were off the pace and even they had been very competitive despite their atrocious win-loss record.
The 1-13 Taipans lost 81-70 at home to Sydney on Thursday and 87-82 in Adelaide on Sunday on Saturday.
Brisbane are fourth, but Adelaide (7-8), Illawarra (7-9) and NZ Breakers (6-8) are all still in the hunt for a playoff spot, with the Kiwi side scoring a 96-79 home win over the Hawks earlier in the round
"I think it's still really wide open," Gaze said.
"I don't think any of us would feel real safe by any stretch because of the schedule and the evenness of the competition.
"There are so many anomalies in the draw, some teams are finished with a team or they haven't played a team."
"To me it would appear as though Brisbane are in a really good shape.
"They've played this mob (Melbourne) three times, they've played Perth four times."
