Acuff Jr. Scores 19 in Preseason Debut as Kings Fall to Lakers 127-103

Sacramento rookie Darius Acuff Jr. posted 19 points, four assists, a block and a steal in 27 minutes of his first NBA preseason action against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Darius Acuff Jr. opened his NBA preseason career with a productive night on the scoreboard, but the Sacramento Kings could not keep pace with the Los Angeles Lakers in the exhibition opener. The rookie guard finished with 19 points over 27 minutes on Monday, Oct. 6, when Sacramento fell 127-103 at Golden 1 Center in downtown Sacramento.

Chosen with the seventh overall selection in the 2026 NBA Draft, Acuff carried himself with a steadiness that read more like a player deep into a professional career than someone taking his first NBA minutes. Alongside his scoring, he chipped in four assists, a block and a steal. His own offensive production, though, was not something he chose to dwell on afterward.

Speaking to USA TODAY Sports, Acuff said it had been a long stretch since his last meaningful game and that simply sharing the floor with a different opponent again was satisfying, even if the result left the Kings unhappy.

His critique centered on the defensive end. Los Angeles converted half of its field-goal attempts and hit 45% from three-point range, with 20 shots from beyond the arc going in. Acuff said offense was not the problem; in his assessment, Sacramento failed to generate enough stops as a group, and that shortfall decided the outcome. He voiced no worry about the offense going forward.

The Lakers also made Acuff work for everything, applying pressure across all 94 feet of the floor each time he checked in. The rookie embraced that treatment. He said he enjoys operating against that style and views it as favorable to his game, noting that handling it requires film study, sound decisions and making a single move to attack rather than holding the ball too long in the backcourt. In his mind, the assignment doubles as preparation for the stronger defenders waiting later on the schedule.

Head coach Doug Christie pointed to the same problem area. He cited breakdowns across the team's shell and help-defense principles — helping at improper moments, occupying gaps, closing out and steering ballhandlers toward the middle — and told USA TODAY the film would confirm every one of them. His remedy is the organization's usual cycle: review the video, teach it, drill it and push through the corrections.

Forward-guard Daeqwon Plowden framed the night as the group's first exposure to outside opposition after working only against teammates. With the Kings establishing their benchmarks, he expects the standard of evaluation to climb well above where it previously sat, and he believes the game offered a substantial amount of material to develop from.

Christie, for his part, promised the team would improve and said his players absorbed a blow that they now must answer. Neither the coach nor the locker room treated the defeat as cause for alarm given that it was the first contest of the preseason, though all acknowledged a lengthy list of items to address.