The Sacramento Kings were outmatched in every facet of the game in the season opener against the Los Angeles Clippers. The 121-96 loss was never particularly close aside from a brief moment when the Clippers lead was cut to 7. This game was a total mess.
The Kings offense and defense looks like something you would see at a pickup game on a Tuesday night at the local gym where no one knows each other, with that one guy who thinks he’s a “player coach” calling the shots, but no one is listening. The Clippers dominated the first quarter 41-29 and the third quarter 32-16. The Kings shot 29% from three to the Clippers 40%. Los Angeles also won fast break points 27-18.
Sacramento lost nearly every team stat, including just 57% from the free throw line.
Zach LaVine led the Kings with 28 points in 34 minutes. Domantas Sabonis had 14 points, 18 rebounds, and 8 assists. The story was the dismal shooting performance of Darius Acuff Jr. The rookie went 5-24 from the field. 5-24. He finished with 12 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 4 turnovers in 35 minutes. For comparison, LaVine scored his 28 on 19 shots.
Acuff looked sped up and was forcing things at times, but he was mostly getting the shots we saw him take and make throughout Summer League and preseason. The layups and floaters near the rim weren’t dropping. The jumpers were short. He missed three free throws in a row. It was brutal. He did, for the most part, manage to still get where he wanted, but within whatever offense this is the Kings are running, everything looked very forced and disjointed, not just from him, but from everyone. Let’s hope he shakes this off and gets things back on track efficiency wise on Friday.
Speaking of bad shooting, Keegan Murray went 1-8 from the field, 0-4 from three and took no free throws. His shots also looked forced, not in the flow of any sort of offense at all, and his zero free throws also is concerning. Everyone has been begging for Keegan to be more aggressive his whole career. He does it on the defensive end at times, and on offense it seems even fewer times, but he just has to be better if this team is going to do anything. (And yes, I know they aren’t going to do anything regardless.)
Nique Clifford is still the backup point guard because there isn’t another option. De’Andre Hunter had 6 points.
Your Sacramento Kings have returned ladies and gentlemen. At least if they lose a bunch of games, they have a good chance at a top pick…wait.
Next up, the Portland Trail Blazers who destroyed the Phoenix Suns Wednesday night 124-83.
This is where keeping Doug Christie is going to bite the Kings in the ass. The Kings need a leader with a plan, or else you’re going to get situations where Acuff just has the green light to chuck it as much as possible without repercussion and there’s no sense of cohesive movement or identity. That’s not how you develop players or a team.
This offense should be running through Domas while Acuff gets up to speed. This is where a guy like Simmons would have really helped because it would have allowed Acuff to play a little bit more off ball and not carry all of the playmaking responsibility on his shoulders.
I’m really worried about Keegan. He looks broken. It’s only game 1 and he barely played in preseason, but he even looked a step slow on defense last night. If he can’t figure it out and soon, he’s going to be our newest albatross contract.
I’m already done with Deandre Hunter as a starter. Get Precious in there from the get go.
That was about as demoralizing of a first game as we could have had. Hopefully they get it together to put together at least a semblance of competition for the home opener or you might have boos on opening night. Portland’s a much better team than the Clippers too.
Agreed on all points, especially Doug. If Acuff is the guy you want to build around, go get a coach that will grow and develop with him. OKC did that, Spurs as well. Even the Nets went out and got Jordi. Everyone knows Doug isn’t long terms, so shit or get off the pot.
Keegan definitely looked snake bit. He looked slow and didn’t have much lift in his shot. I wonder if the ankle is still an issue, or is it all in his head.
Unless some wild trades happen, this is looks to be one of (if not the most) demoralizing seasons in the Sac Kings era. The 17 win season of “Shock and Hawes” is within reach of this bunch, but even that was a collection of young dudes that we knew was going to be bad. This year’s team has legit NBA players but is so poorly constructed and coached it may take the cake.
I do wonder if Keegan’s ankle is still a problem. But also, he’s never been good and will never be good in a read and react offense.
It’s a fucking waste of his abilities. I hate Doug, I hate the owner. They are fucking idiots.
I feel both are true. He did’t look 100% last night and the Kings have completely failed in his development and have misused his skillset.
I hate this team already
Keegan was 1-8 but had zero shots go thru the hoop. Saved by a goal tending call.
I posted this on the previous thread prior to last night’s game
This team is so painfully predictable. Doug is the primary reason right now (whoever thought anyone could make Luke Walton seem like a decent coach?) but Vivek is still the root cause and underlying disease. Until that fool somehow goes away, abandon all hope ye who enter here…
Vivek’s best move was his first move, hiring Michael Malone. Pretty much down hill from there (Mike Brown was fine, but he ended with the same fate as Malone).
I really hope the other ownership groups of the Kings have some way to oust Vivek. I don’t see any other way to get rid of him.
Fired by Vivek, then going on to win the championship with a different team.
Vivek is 2 for 5 in coaches going on to win a title after he fires them.
Malone, Karl, Joerger, Walton, Brown.
Sacramento fans at large have done nothing organized to show its dissatisfaction with Vivek as the owner responsible for the basketball product compared to other cities, where fans buy billboards writing Sell the Team, chant Sell the Team, wear paper bags, boycott games. Sac media, including radio hosts largely pull their punches when it comes to criticizing ownership. Perhaps the worst thing Vivek did wasn’t to put out a consistently hopeless basketball product, but to kill any belief that Sacramento deserves better than this Kangz version of basketball hell.
Vivek didn’t do that.
Fans do that all by themselves. And I understand that there are more worrying issues in today’s world to pour energy into. But it’s still a choice by the fans, IMO.
It was so bad I watched Anaconda instead.
I really like Keegan Murray as a person by if he can’t handle his job on the Kings starting five in the next five or six games then IMO trade him before him value goes completely down hill.
Hunter just doesn’t.t have it anymore. Thanks he has only a year before he is gone.
Lavine had 28 points to lead the team but he won’t be here next year also.
Doug should have given Karaban a shot last night. Sitting on the bench doesn’t help.
I really loved Keegan and hoped he would find his aggressive side. At this point it’s more than safe to say he just doesn’t have that. I’m not sure that contract is tradeable right now unless he starts having some good games and stays healthy.
My 2 cents and pennies for thought-like things:
A. Acuff will be fine. Shots didn’t fall and that happens. Look around at all the top rookies last night. Every single one was inefficient.
B. Keegan is who he is and he isn’t even a Tobias Harris level offensive player. I don’t think he ever will be.
C. Who is the offensive coordinator of this team anyway? And why don’t we talk about that person more? It boggles my mind that Doug, who has talked extensively about the influence of Coachy (Pete Carill for those who don’t know) had on his career. You would think he would find and hire his own version of that. But alas …
Does DC have the authority to hire his own coaches?
I would be 0% surprised if Doug asked to hire a specialist/consultant or whatever and was told no for financial reasons!
Literally nothing would surprise me regarding ownership/management ineptitude.
I still want the scoop on why Bobby J left.
Perhaps but Doug is incredibly stubborn so I doubt he would do that.
He’s like the owner, he’s delusional
I think Woodson handles the offensive duties. Last season he had that role while BJax handled the defense. I’d assume Woodson still is spearheading the offense?
I thought Woodson was the defensive guy. Maybe it’s Mike Miller?
Regardless, these should be questions from our media. These guys should be talked about if they are failing DC too.
Per Wiki on Woodson’s last coaching stint for the Hoosiers:
I asked James Ham and here are my questions and his responses:
Sactown Tony
@SactownAnthony
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5m
Hello James. Couple of questions:
Who is the offensive coordinator of this team, Miller or Woodson? (why don’t we talk about that person more?)
Is that person a Doug hire? It boggles my mind that Doug, who talks extensively about Coachy, would not have his own version of that.
James Ham
@James_HamNBA
Mike Miller has been the offensive coordinator for the past two seasons. He is a former Knicks assistant l, as well as other teams.
The Kings brought in Brenden Suhr to be one of those Coachie type sounding boards for Christie.
1:39 PM · Oct 22, 2026
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1
View
https://x.com/James_HamNBA/status/2113369758787854713
Oh wow, thanks for tracking that down!
All I ever hear Doug talk about is Reed and react offense, playing defense and running.
My biggest issue with a Acuff chucking up so many shots in so much iso ball and continuing on his 1.07 average preseason assist to turnover ratio is that he’s showing up the veterans on the team by not being more inclusive of them in the offensive set. This is gonna lead to even more iso ball. We already have a team full of Bigs that can’t or won’t take three point shots on a regular basis a roater mostly full of poor passing and spacing. Still don’t have a good shot blocker and no experience at point guard. This is starting to look like the Titanic or worse even, the Titan submersible.
Most NBA offenses are just a copy cat of other teams. Read and React, dribble drive for kickout 3s, etc. It’s all nearly the same stuff. Gone are the different offensive systems, like the triangle, princeton, the Jazz with Malone and Stockton pich and roll, etc.
I know there are elements of those in many offenses now, but I just don’t think it makes the game any better.
I wonder how long the Kings are gonna roll with just one PG on the roster, especially one who may end up averaging more TOs than assists. They have an open roster spot and an open two-way, but don’t seem to be in any hurry to balance the roster.
The backup PG duties were handled by Nique last night. Between him and Acuff they racked up just 6 assists to go with 7 TOs. That ain’t gonna cut it.
If this the plan going forward the offense should primarily flow through Sabonis.
Usage last night: Acuff 36.2, Sabonis 12.1. A legitimate NBA head coach realizes this in-game and makes the adjustments, better integrating your efficient, veteran, highly paid player while getting your rookie to cool his jets a little bit. And that adjustment would be to the short and long term benefit of Acuff. And that is the concern as it pertains to Darius Acuff and his maturation as an NBA player while tethered to the Sacramento Kings.
Draymond Green, known of course for his sage wisdom, maturity and impeccable decision-making, literally said this to Acuff a week ago. One game is one game, but I already feel like we’re minimizing. This is not the first low-efficiency, bad decision making game we’ve seen from Acuff. Acuff seems to need an adult in the room to guide him, and Vivek can’t handle having anyone like that around for very long.
I think the Kings are gonna just give the ball to Acuff as much as possible and let him ISO and take as many shots as he wants in a push for ROY. We are going to hear a bunch of ROY hype from the Kings paid talking heads. It’s really the only thing the franchise has to promote this season. He’s gonna get the Tyreke Evans treatment.
DaROYus!
My thoughts
I’ve been on the Keegan bandwagon from the get go but he looked like shit last night. Maybe if they played him at his natural position (3) that would help. Get Precious in the starting lineup at 4/5, the guy can play. No more 23 shot nights for Acuff. Doug needs to get it together quickly or he’ll be unemployed by Thanksgiving.
Destroying careers 82 games at a time.
I really dislike this pessimism.
The Kangz can destroy a career within 30 games easily.
DC is masterful in that regard.
So if rook hits 10 shots and Keegan hits 3 or 4 we have a chance.
Maybe it was Kris Murray playing last night while Keegan has been enjoying his new contract?
Classic Keegan “Wet Blanket” Murray game. Rookie sucked because he has no standard around him. This team is grim. I wish they could literally cut the entire team except Acuff and assemble a new team from other teams benches.
Budenholzer
I see what you did there. Twice.
But I was told Christie would get us over the hump.
You too.
Looks like it could be a long year, its not a good look when many of the issues the team had have been spoken by many on here for a while. And Management has gone pff we got this hold our beer and watch this
I don’t know if Doug (a good man) is not a good coach or does he have his hands tied behind his back with an awful roster. I don’t think he is at this level Its ok as Scott Perry is still evaluating the roster
If this goes south what happens, is it a panic trade? Who gets dealt first?, who gets injured and takes forever to come back? Who will the Kings pick with the 12th pick as they will end up in the bottom 3
Perry is still evaluating the roster?
He’s been GM for a year and half, had two drafts, and two free agency periods. He also hired Doug as HC. There are just 3 contacts that aren’t his: LaVine, Sabonis, and Monk. If it weren’t for two of those guys that aren’t his, the Kings would have lost by 50 last night.
This is his team.
Let me help you with that… This is his shitshow.
I should have added context I heard that on 1140 last week.
No doubt its his team but I don’t get the coverage he gets from the local media. I think he is a used car salesman, who best days are behind him. Doug has enough issues on his own, but this roster is dross
You have two guards that can’t won’t defend, I can’t imagine that for any team entering the season one might think what does the roster need?
Two of Perrys consequental moves were right before training camp Westbrook last year and Simmons this year, what the hell is the front office doing. Pretty much every person on this site saw it, but Armstrong and Perry are going nah hold my beer
If? I think you meant “when”.
Kings are not a good team and not playing well. Some teams are bad but play “over” their talent. Not the Kings.
Acuff is going to have a rough season. Opponents let him shoot + he can find a shot. The results are inefficiency and ball hogging.
Others have to step up Kings did well when DS got the rebound and took it up the court.
To avoid relegation Kings have to win about 32-34 games This means they have to beat the teams below them and they have to win about 4 of each set of 10 games.
Right now, Bucks, GSW, Hornets, Suns and Nets look bad. Bulls and NOP marginal. Kings have to beat out 3 of those teams to avoid relegation.
Ironically, Lavine looks like the best player.
Which teams are below them, exactly? Of the teams you listed, maybe the Bucks will be worse than the Kings. The rest will all have a better record than the Kings (assuming healthy)
After having League Pass for many years to follow the Kings, I have no regrets having finally cancelled.
Guys, for crying out loud, it’s just one game.
Have a little faith.
Things may look bad now, but it will only get much worse going forward. Like will we win ten games this season-worse.
Buckle up.
What will be higher: the number of games this Kings team wins or the spot they end up in in the draft next summer?
This. I can’t stand Zach LaVine as a basketball player, but LaVine is literally the only player on the team who can reliably score the ball. Monk is hot and cold (if there isn’t some kind of stand off happening behind the scenes) and Domas is an opportunistic scorer. They’re a 20 win team with LaVine. Wait until he gets a hangnail and sits for two weeks.
Progress?
per rotowire:
18 hours agoMonk (ankle) is probable for Friday’s game against Portland.
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