Darius Acuff Jr. put together the kind of night that usually gets a team over the hump. Instead, the Sacramento Kings left Memphis with another loss and the same ugly record.
Acuff poured in 38 points, added five assists and five rebounds, and knocked down 9 of 14 from three - a new Sacramento rookie record - but it wasn’t nearly enough in a 136-105 defeat on Halloween night. The Kings dropped to 0-6, while Memphis stayed perfect at 6-0 as the NBA’s only unbeaten team.
Sacramento was shorthanded, missing Keegan Murray, Maxime Raynaud, Ben Simmons and Dylan Cardwell. Memphis was without Ty Jerome, Quentin Post and Scotty Pippen Jr.
The game opened with a quick Sacramento burst. The Kings raced out to a 7-0 lead, with De’Andre Hunter’s three-point touch carrying over from the previous game in New Orleans. But after a few turnovers, Sacramento started giving up fastbreak chances, and Memphis answered with eight straight to settle in.
The Grizzlies kept leaning on one of the biggest reasons for their hot start: offensive rebounds. They piled up second-chance points early and often, and by the end of the first quarter they were ahead 27-21 with six second-chance points off six offensive boards. Sacramento did make its free throws in the opening period, going 8/8, but Memphis was already finding more room from deep.
Doug Christie turned to rookie Emanuel Sharp first off the bench, with Malik Monk and Nique Clifford following soon after. Clifford, who has barely played in the season’s opening stretch, logged just over three minutes before Jonathan Mogbo replaced him, apparently for rebounding help.
The second quarter turned into the real separation point. Memphis started drilling open threes, and GG Jackson got hot from outside, with his fourth make on four attempts pushing the Kings into a 49-29 hole with just under seven minutes left in the half.
Sacramento did claw back some ground by forcing turnovers, and Memphis rookie Cameron Boozer had seven giveaways before halftime. But Acuff was the one trying to drag the Kings back into the fight. He hit a pair of catch-and-shoot threes, then started burying pull-up looks from deep during a 51-40 Sacramento run.
By halftime, Acuff had 21 points and was 5 for 6 from three, leading all scorers. Hunter had 15 for Sacramento. Memphis’ bench had already taken over the game, outscoring the Kings’ reserves 40-10 behind 15 points each from Jackson and Isaiah Stewart.
The third quarter looked a lot like the kind of stretch that has haunted Sacramento in recent seasons. Memphis ripped off a 12-2 run to stretch the lead to 82-60, and the Kings never found a way to slow the game down.
Acuff stayed productive, but the defense around him kept breaking down. Boozer became more involved after a rough first half, and Memphis kept finding openings inside and on the perimeter.
Giving up 40 points in a quarter is a brutal way to survive in the NBA, and Sacramento has made it a recurring problem this season. The Kings trailed 108-80 heading into the fourth, and the final 12 minutes felt more like damage control than a comeback attempt.
Domantas Sabonis had only one field-goal attempt through three quarters, though he did get more involved in the final period. It didn’t matter. Acuff kept knocking down threes, but the Kings never got the stops they needed, and the margin kept growing until the final buzzer.
Sacramento’s reserves were overwhelmed all night, and the bench battle told the story in one blunt number: Memphis outscored the Kings 81-20 in bench points. Christie still hasn’t gotten much from that group, and the team remains winless.
For the night, Sacramento hit just 2 of 24 from three outside of Acuff, while Memphis finished 19 of 38 from beyond the arc as a team. Acuff’s 38-point outing was the bright spot, but it came in a loss that pushed the Kings to 0-6 and left Memphis alone at the top of the league at 6-0.
In Other News...
Jerry Reynolds Sees A Kings Problem That Goes Beyond The Starters
Jerry Reynolds has been around the Kings long enough to know when a hot start is masking a bigger issue, and his latest read on the roster went well beyond the usual talk about the starting five. The former Sacramento coach focused on rookie Darius Acuff Jr. as part of the larger picture, stressing that the young guards growth should be about balanced scoring and playmaking rather than simply piling up shots. For Reynolds, the early-season conversation in Sacramento is not just about who is producing up top, but how the team is building something that can last.
He also pointed to the workload on the starters as a warning sign, noting that the minutes have been heavy early and that the bench has to become more than an afterthought. Nique Clifford, in particular, is part of that evaluation, with Reynolds making it clear that Sacramento needs to find out what it has behind the main rotation before the season gets any deeper. He even weighed in on a proposed trade involving Anthony Black and Jalen Suggs, saying he would lean toward Blacks upside and would be wary of taking on Suggs contract. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Already Have A Problem In The One Area They Trusted Most
The early returns off Sacramentos bench have been rough, and the issue has gone beyond one cold night or a bad matchup. Injuries have thinned the second unit, with Ben Simmons, Keegan Murray, Maxime Raynaud and Dylan Cardwell all unavailable at various points, and the players left to carry the load have not provided much relief. Malik Monk and Nique Clifford, in particular, have struggled to give the Kings the kind of scoring punch and shot-making that usually helps keep the offense afloat when the starters sit.
For a group that entered the season trusting its depth to be a stabilizing force, the concern now is whether the front office leaned too heavily into defense and left the offense short on answers. Through the first six games, Sacramentos bench has not just been quiet, it has been a drag on the teams overall production, and that makes the next stretch feel especially important. The Kings need more than just bodies back in the rotation. They need the second unit to start looking like a strength again. [Read more 🡒]
Kings May Be Giving Up On A Young Guard Too Soon
Nique Cliffords second season in Sacramento has taken an uneasy turn, with his playing time dropping enough to spark real questions about where he fits in the Kings long-term plans. The roster has been crowded by younger players ahead of him in the rotation, and that has put the organizations handling of its developmental pieces under a brighter spotlight than it probably wanted.
Now there is at least some outside interest to consider, with reports linking the Oklahoma City Thunder to Clifford as they navigate injuries. For the Kings, it adds another layer to an already familiar dilemma: whether to keep waiting on a young guard who has shown enough to remain intriguing, or move on before he gets a longer runway in Sacramento. [Read more 🡒]