Darius Acuff Jr. is taking 23.6 shots a game. So is Luka Doncic. One of them is shooting 49.7% from the field, and the other is a 19-year-old rookie shooting 40.6%, per Basketball Reference. Only Anthony Edwards, in four games, is taking more.
That is the first thing I’d tell the Lakers before Wednesday night’s game in Sacramento: let the rookie shoot. Don’t foul him, don’t send a second defender at him 30 feet from the rim, and don’t panic if he hits three in a row. The Kings player who can actually beat the Lakers tonight is Domantas Sabonis, and the way he does it is a weakness this 6-2 start hasn’t fixed. The Lakers rank 28th in the league in defensive rebounding percentage.
The Rookie Can Have His Shots
Acuff, the seventh pick in the 2026 draft, is averaging 26.1 points, the most of any rookie. He can get hot. He made nine of his 14 threes against Memphis on Oct. 31 and scored 38, and he put up 34 points and 14 assists against New Orleans two nights earlier, per his Basketball Reference game log. Sacramento lost both games anyway.
The full picture is a high-volume rookie guard learning on the job. He is 67-for-165 from the field and 21-for-67 from three (31.3%). Take out the Oct. 31 Memphis game and he is 12-for-53 from deep. His effective field goal percentage is .470. Lakers opponents as a group are at .545, per the Lakers’ team page. Every Acuff three is a shot the Lakers should be happy to give up.
He’s also turning it over 3.6 times a game, with six against the Pelicans and five in Monday’s win over Dallas. The Lakers’ opponent turnover rate is 15.8%, fourth in the league, and they are fifth in steals at 10.1 a game. That’s the defense I’d lean on. Stay in front, wall off the drive, wait for the loose dribble. I made the case earlier this season that Walker Kessler gives the Lakers permission to pressure the ball, and a rookie with 25 turnovers in seven games is a good target for it.
The one way to make Acuff dangerous is to foul him. He is shooting 84.8% at the line, and he went 11-for-12 there in the home opener against Portland when he scored 33. The Lakers give up 28.0 free-throw attempts a game. A rookie shooting 40% from the floor gets a lot more efficient once he’s standing at the line, so the closeouts should be high hands and no bodies.
Zach LaVine Is the Better Shooter
If the Lakers want to take one Kings guard away, it’s the other one. Zach LaVine is scoring 23.4 points on a .596 effective field goal percentage and making 37.7% of his 7.6 threes a game. When the Kings finally won on Monday, beating Dallas 115-100, LaVine made five of his nine threes, per his game log.
That’s a job for Matisse Thybulle, who is averaging 1.6 steals in eight starts. I wrote before the opener that Thybulle is the Lakers’ wing stopper, and chasing a shooter around screens is what that role is for. Let Austin Reaves or Quentin Grimes stay in front of Acuff and force him to shoot over them.
Sabonis Is the Real Problem
Sabonis is the strangest stat line on the Kings. He is taking only 8.3 shots a game and making 72.4% of them. He is averaging 14.6 rebounds and 6.9 assists, and his 4.4 offensive rebounds a game rank third in the league behind Moussa Diabaté and Chet Holmgren, who has played three games, per Basketball Reference.
What stands out to me is how much of Sacramento’s second-chance offense is his alone. The Kings have 74 offensive rebounds as a team. Sabonis has 31 of them, 42%. As a team they rank 26th in offensive rebounding percentage, so if he gets boxed out, the Kings have very little coming in behind him. He had seven offensive boards in the 33-point Acuff game against Portland, along with 27 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists, per his game log.
Now the Lakers’ side. Before the Utah game in October, I argued that Kessler needs help on the glass. Eight games in, the help hasn’t shown up. The Lakers’ defensive rebounding percentage is 68.8, 28th of 30 teams, and opponents are averaging 13.6 offensive rebounds a game, per Basketball Reference. Utah grabbed 20. Toronto grabbed 22 on Sunday and got off 105 shots, per the Lakers’ game log, in a game the Lakers won by six.
Kessler is doing his part, with 10.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks a game. The issue is what happens when he leaves Sabonis to challenge a drive. Sabonis wins by hitting first. He finds a body, sits on it, and the ball comes to him. If Kessler goes to block Acuff’s layup, someone else has to put a body on Sabonis right away.
Here’s what I’d do. Tell Kessler to stay home on Sabonis more often than he usually would. Acuff floaters over a set center are fine. When Kessler does help, the low man, often whoever is guarding Precious Achiuwa, takes Sabonis. Achiuwa is listed as probable with left ankle soreness on the NBA’s noon injury report. He has 14 offensive rebounds of his own, which means Sabonis and Achiuwa have 45 of the Kings’ 74 between them.
The Kings Are Short, and It’s a Good Night to Practice
Sacramento is 1-6 and 0-2 at home. The NBA’s 12 p.m. ET report has Keegan Murray out with left ankle capsulitis, Maxime Raynaud out with a right patella subluxation and Ben Simmons out after right Achilles tendon repair. For the Lakers, Adou Thiero is out with a left knee injury, and Kessler is available with a left finger splint.
The Kings have the league’s worst defense by opponent effective field goal percentage, .584, and the Lakers have the league’s best shooting offense at .611, per Basketball Reference. I’m not worried about the Lakers scoring. The Kings play fast, fifth in pace, which means extra possessions and extra misses to rebound.
That’s why I’d treat this as a rebounding night. The schedule gets heavier after Friday’s home game with Portland, with a trip that starts in Detroit on Sunday, per ESPN. The habit the Lakers need on that trip is five players finishing the defensive possession, and against a team where one player gets 42% of the offensive rebounds, the assignment is about as clear as it gets: find Sabonis.
The number I’ll watch tonight isn’t Acuff’s points. He might get 30. It’s Sabonis’ offensive rebounds. Hold him to two or fewer, and the Lakers have a rebounding plan worth packing for the road trip.