SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Even on July 4, when Sacramento Kings fans could have been downing hot dogs and soaking up the sun, they showed up with palpable energy to watch the potential future of the franchise in Darius Acuff Jr.
Fans were hoping to see the No. 7 pick in the NBA Draft, playing alongside young core pieces such as second-year players Nique Clifford and Dylan Cardwell, produce some fireworks in his first California Classic Summer League game at Golden 1 Center and potentially signal a step forward for the franchise.
The 19-year-old guard out of Arkansas did … in spurts.
“It was a rough start; I was getting rushed a little bit,” Acuff said. “Something I don’t normally do, but I’m just glad we got the win, and I stayed poised down the stretch.”
The box score shows Acuff scored a game-high 25 points in the Kings’ 79-76 win over the Brooklyn Nets. It also reflects inefficiency, as the 6-foot-2 guard started 1-for-10 and finished 9-for-29 from the field, including 1-for-9 from 3-point range. He added four assists, one rebound and a steal.
But there were flashes of the scintillating offensive play of which the 2025-26 SEC Player of the Year, who led the conference in points (23.5) and assists (6.4) per game, is capable.
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In the fourth quarter, Acuff sliced through four defenders in the paint and floated one in off the back rim. With three minutes remaining and the Kings down 4 points, he snaked his way into the lane before lobbing to Cardwell, who slammed it home to cut the deficit to 72-70.
On the next possession, Acuff left his defender guarding air with a lightning-quick crossover but missed a jumper from the free-throw line. Cardwell grabbed the offensive rebound and kicked it back out to a relocated Acuff for a second chance, this time from deep.
73-72 Kings.
It was Acuff’s first and only 3-pointer of the game.
On the final possession, with the score tied at 76, Acuff isolated at the top of the key. He delegated the last shot, finding 2025 first-rounder Clifford, who buried the game-winning 3.
Darius Acuff assisted Nique Clifford, who drilled the go-ahead and eventually game-winning three to beat the Brooklyn Nets 79-76 in game 1 of the California Classic.
Acuff finished with a game-high 25 points on 9-29 from the field and 1-9 from three.
Clifford finished with 14 pic.twitter.com/6geFXcuKIL
— Devon Henderson (@HendersonDevon_) July 4, 2026
Right after it fell, faint echoes of a few cowbells rang from the stands. A Sacramento staple. A sound synonymous with better days in the Chris Webber era of the early 2000s. The same days Acuff, Clifford and company hope to bring back.
“(We) definitely take a lot of pride in it,” Clifford said. “(We) want this to be the start of what we’re trying to build. You know, there’s a culture that I feel like (general manager) Scott (Perry) and our heads have talked about from the front office to down to the players.”
On his way to 25 points, Acuff made some sharp pick-and-roll reads, drilled some midrange pull-ups and drew a few and-1s.
He also blew some defensive assignments and shot 31 percent from the field.
“I thought the start I had wasn’t gonna happen,” Acuff said. “But it happens to the best of us.”
Donning the No. 5 jersey most recently worn by 2022-23 All-NBA guard De’Aaron Fox, the hope is that Acuff can become what Fox was for Sacramento when he was drafted out of Kentucky in 2017: an electric scoring guard capable of galvanizing the fanbase of a losing franchise.
The type of exhilarating guard who can shoulder the burden of pulling Sacramento back into relevance.
Fox helped lead Sacramento out of a 16-season playoff drought, the longest in North American professional sports at the time. The breakthrough came in 2022-23, when the Kings earned the Western Conference’s No. 3 seed with a 48-34 record, but fell to the Golden State Warriors in seven games in the first round.
By last season, the Kings had fallen to a 22-60 record and 14th in the West, while Fox was playing for the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals.
With a roster built around aging veterans in Domantas Sabonis, 30, DeMar DeRozan, 36, and Zach LaVine, 31, Acuff will be asked to help lead the franchise’s next resurgence. But he’s not alone in that charge, and Kings fans who opted out of early family barbecues Saturday got a look at the other pieces of Sacramento’s young core as well.
Clifford scored 16 points, including the game winner. Cardwell added 8 points and nine rebounds while making multiple hustle plays, including a jump-ball tie-up in which he refused to relinquish the ball until officials pried him and Nets guard Egor Demin apart. It was another example of the relentless competitiveness that has already endeared him to Sacramento fans. The same energy that helped the undrafted center earn a promotion from a two-way contract to a standard NBA deal in February.
Saturday’s game did not include another key youngster in Maxime Raynaud, who averaged 12.5 points and 7.5 rebounds last season and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team. The Kings’ second-round pick in 2025, Raynaud isn’t on the California Classic roster.
“I feel like we have the best fanbase in the whole NBA, so I feel like they deserve a great showing every time we step on the floor,” Clifford said. “So for us to be the young guys that can hopefully catapult that and start that wave, we definitely take a lot of pride in that.”
They’re hoping to keep providing fireworks for a fanbase desperate to celebrate them.
