The Sacramento Kings are back in action Sunday at Golden 1 Center against the Memphis Grizzlies. Sacramento has a chance to build on the progress made in the last game against the Portland Trail Blazers, in which the offense clicked better and overall the team produced a much better performance than in the season opener.
Who: Sacramento Kings (0-2) vs. Memphis Grizzlies (2-0).
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
When: 6 PM PST / 9 PM EST
Watch: NBCSCA / League Pass
The Kings ran the offense through Domantas Sabonis against the Blazers and everything functioned a lot more smoothly. He finished with a triple double as a result. The defense, of course, remained a huge problem, and I don’t expect that to change today because it never does in Sacramento. In terms of the rotation, let’s see what happens with De’Andre Hunter and Precious Achiuwa, Malik Monk as the backup point guard and if Emanuel Sharp gets significantly more minutes than Nique Clifford.
The Grizzlies and rookie Cameron Boozer come in undefeated. Memphis is averaging 117 points per game and only allowing 105 points per game. The Kings are averaging 108 points per game and allowing 124 points per game. For the Kings to have any chance, today and really any game this season, Sabonis is going to have to have another monster game.
And everyone will once again be on Darius Acuff Jr. usage and field goal percentage watch. The rookie is averaging 22.5 points, 3.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game. He is shooting 30% from the field and 11% from three.
Another tough matchup for the Kings. They will have the home crowd behind them though.
Prediction: Grizzlies, 123, Kings, 110.
The Griz have already won twice
So a win for the Kings would be nice.
Their rookie Cam Boozer
Down low is a bruiser,
While our defense has been imprecise!
+1 The Kings must play much better defense!
Hey Rik, tell your buddies at Blazers Edge that if they think that DC is “a good coach and a great teacher,” i have a highway and a bridge to sell them here in Lincoln.
That being said, roughly a year ago, we lost by 41 pts to the Grizz, so lets aim for just 30 this time?
Keegan listed as a “game-time decision” for tonight because of his ankle.
Keegan Murray, GTD: Broken Shot
I really hope he figures it out soon.
It’s the battle of the Murray twins.
I thought Portland was the Home Opener.
I really like what Memphis has done with their team. They’ve bought into the small market model of accumulating picks by doing a proper tear down like OKC and the Spurs. They are going to be relevant far faster than the Kings will ever be.
To recap, once they realized they hit their ceiling they sold high on Bane for 4 unconditional first round picks and a pick swap. Then they sold high on JJJ for 3 firsts and a nice prospect in Taylor Hendricks. Next they absorbed Big Stew from the cap strapped Pistons for 3 second picks. They then capped it off by moving a damn near untradeable contract in Ja for two move movable deals in Grant and Murray.
They’ve got a ton of young wings (Wells, GG, Lopez), swooped in on Ty Jerome, have a very 2 way guard in Cedric Coward, a rim protecting big in Edey, then landed Boozer at #3.
They have all that youth, no bad contracts, and a ton of future picks.
It’s so exhausting watching other teams make smart and proper moves only to see the Kings barely tread water.
I agree, MEM has a good pool of young players at this point in their rebuild. Memphis, one the most disliked cities in the NBA among players…MEM recognized their reality and they doubled-down on the non-FA team building route and its paying off because they’ve stayed committed to it once they decided to break the roster down.
I’d also argue that the Bane trade was a bit of a lucky outlier for them as Bane isn’t worth everything ORL gave up even though he’s a quality player while JJJ is a rare example of the easy-to-build with, rim-protecting, floor-spacing big that is especially valuable in today’s NBA and they got a decent value.
Meanwhile, the Kings have an overpaid Domas, a rare and productive big but difficult-to-build with and an overpaid Zach, an efficient one-trick show pony that fills a gap on offense but does nothing else. Not as easy to get assets for them due to their contracts mostly.
The poor-asset management and lack of processed-based decision making by SAC’s FO in recent history along with the penchant for drafting older players has left the Kings with a real lack of exciting young players. There are so many other rebuilding rosters I wish we could swap with.
Vivek’s not in this for fandom, he wants income…like yesterday.
And he wants a baseball team.
…and love.
It’s kinda hard not to like what they’ve done.
Not sure if this is how you do it ….
The Kings will get grizzled
Season already fizzled
Doug is a moron
The owner can move on
And take Matina and the drivel
Hey! Well done!
Is it just me or is anyone else just a little bit troubled by the fact that our rookie point guard, who is playing in only his 3rd regular season game, is hiking up near 25-30% of the team’s total shot attempts while hitting approximately 30/11%?
Not really, he may as well
Why did Doug just sub Monk and LaVine in when the Kings were starting to play good? That’s an odd sub. The squad that was in appeared to be clicking…then Monk launches an air ball from 25 feet.
He missed that shot by a country mile.
Not a fan of the five we started the 2nd with but there’s not many options.
Sabonis looking motivated, and doing his best to play his way out of town.
The Kings are looking extremely low BBIQ in every aspect of the game. As usual. Low BBIQ is the 7th pillar.
My God, man. They are literally just standing around on defense.
Literally standing still. It’s breaking my brain.
I was watching Monk just standing under the Memphis basket not even trying to rebound.
“Transition defense has been an issue the last few games.” -Mark Jones LOL
“Time out, Doug Christie has seen enough.”
Mark Jones
The Kings are shooting 47% from three (9/19). JFC take more!
Where’s Nique Clifford? Riding the pine lately?
OMFG why did Doug put Monk back in?
Monk with the immediate turnover.
Double foul my ass. These refs blow.
Not watching the game but the stat line of the night appears to be Achiuwa shooting the team out of the game from the FT line.
Well end of 3rd and down 8. Hard to imagine this piss-poorly coached team will manage to pull this out.
Its gonna be a long season, but the team is much more watchable without Demar and Westbrick.
No lies told.
Agree but they have no identity and do absolutely nothing good, let alone great.
A lot of late calls for Memphis tonight.
Seriously, did both Kayte and Marc say the top of the backboard is out of bounds? It’s not if it comes back to the rim side and doesn’t hit the shot clock. It’s only out of bounds if it goes past the top of the backboard.
Not enough shot makers on the Kings. Miss after miss. No closers.
Coward double doubling in this game with 10 rebounds is not acceptable.
Our starting SG, on the other hand, has 2 rebounds in 37 minutes.
Why are they not running the offense through point Sabonis in crunch time?!??
Putting Domas at the dunkers spot is criminal coaching.
Zach LaVine as the de facto PG in the 4th quarter is not something I had on my Doug Christie Bingo card, yet here we are. WTF?
Giving up 120 points a game isn’t gonna cut it.
I sure don’t understand why this team felt that logging game time together in the pre-season was unimportant. This group has never played together, and it looks it.
Basketball 3.Doh
Consecutive stops, late shotmaking, free throws, hero ball, Kayte saying we just need to give them more time. The more things change…
Light the train wreck!
“When difficult situations arise, it is important to approach them with the proper attitude and perspective. Don’t ask ‘why is this happening to me?’ Instead, ask ‘what can I learn from this?’ There will always be times of adversity and triumph. That same perspective should be applied to both equally!”
– Scott Perry (October 12, 2026)
[…] Kings vs. Grizzlies Preview: Can Sabonis-Acuff win against the undefeated Grizzlies? — The Kings Herald […]
Acuff was 4 for 9 in the first half, which looks like progress! Then he went 5 for 14 in the second half, taking four more shots than anyone else on the team. Yeesh.
The Kings upcoming schedule is ugly. Spurs are next, which they may as well just forfeit. They have three non-playoff teams in the following three games, and then November is a bunch of playoff teams, with the Suns and Warriors as the outliers.
If they don’t win some of the three games between the Spurs and the Lakers, it’s conceivable that they won’t win until December.
Yeah, these first games were a chance to set a positive tone against arguably the other 3 worst teams in the West, but they lost all 3…by double digits. No worse way to start the season.
Damn, Doug is toast. In the post-game presser he was questioned about the Kings being severely out rebounded and in response he said the Kings were only out rebounded by two on the offensive end. Then he said this loss is on him and that he needs to find a way to be better. Um, wut? Find a way? That’s all he said! Find…a…way…to…be…better? At, like what?
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