Darius Acuff Jr. Scored 19 in a 24-Point Blowout, and That's the Kings' 2026-27 Story

The Sacramento Kings opened the preseason Monday night at Golden 1 Center and lost 127-103 to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers led by as much as 33, shot 50% from the field and 45.5% from behind the arc, and handed out 29 assists as a team. Luka Doncic scored 21 in a game the Lakers played without Austin Reaves and Walker Kessler.

For Sacramento, the headline was the rookie. Darius Acuff Jr. finished his first NBA preseason game with 19 points on 8-of-17 shooting, and the early reviews were about as good as a rebuilding team could hope for. The former Arkansas guard "looked comfortable" in his debut, and training camp feedback on him had already been positive before he ever took the floor. He was also candid afterward about what went wrong for Sacramento — which is itself a data point, because the answer was not hard to find.

The Defense Is Still the Problem

The Lakers' efficiency numbers Monday were a rerun. Sacramento finished the 2025 season ranked 28th in defensive rating at 121.5, better than only Utah and Washington. Over its final ten games, that number ballooned to a 125.2 defensive rating with a -10.6 net rating and just three wins. A 24-point preseason loss in which the opponent scores at will is not proof of anything on its own, but it is consistent with everything the profile already said.

That inconsistency is the thing fans were promised would be addressed. Instead, the roster has mostly been reshaped by subtraction and speculation.

A Roster Defined by Rumors

Domantas Sabonis spent the summer as the center of trade chatter, then publicly shut down what he called "made up" rumors, saying he's committed to sticking around as the team rebuilds. Zach LaVine, meanwhile, appears set to play the full season rather than be bought out, and Malik Monk's name keeps surfacing in trade conversations — including in connection with Toronto and an RJ Barrett-sized window the Kings have reportedly had open. Ben Simmons arrived in September on a low-risk arrangement.

That's a lot of noise around a team that won 22 games last season. It's also the point: this is a development year, and the evaluation is about Acuff, the younger pieces around him, and whether Sacramento can build something coherent before the 2027 draft changes the calculus.

What the Market Says — and What It Doesn't

For context on external expectations, one sportsbook lists Sacramento's season win total at 21.5, with the over priced at -120. The same book has the Kings among the longest championship prices on the board. A neutral-court power rating puts them 26th at -10.9, roughly a 10.9-point underdog to an average team.

There is one genuinely interesting wrinkle buried in that rating: Sacramento's 2.42 figure versus market implies the Kings have outperformed expectations enough that books have been slow to price them this low. Whatever that's worth, it cuts against the idea that this team is a uniform disaster.

What's Next

Sacramento travels to Los Angeles for a rematch with the Lakers on Oct. 8, then visits Golden State on Oct. 10 before hosting Portland on Oct. 13 and visiting San Antonio on Oct. 16. The regular season opens Oct. 21 on the road against the Clippers.

The preseason scoreboard won't matter. Acuff's 19 points might. For a franchise that has spent the last month making more news in trade rumors than in games, the rookie's comfort level is the first concrete thing the Kings have had to build on.