The Sacramento Kings have hit a slow start to the 2026 NBA season. But NBA Draft find Darius Acuff Jr. is rising as an early highlight. Now he's added a monster tomahawk throwdown to his reel, coming against the New Orleans Pelicans.

Acuff took flight in transition, then put Trey Murphy III on a poster.

The recent Arkansas standout went off in the Big Easy. He posted these final first half numbers inside the Smoothie King Center.

Acuff even hit eight of his first 11 shot attempts. He's emerging as the new fast break weapon coach Doug Christie can lean into. Including in the name of reigniting the glory days that involved Christie.

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Sacramento elevated Christie to head coach with the clear vision of trying to recreate the Kings' early 2000s run. Christie played on those teams that tangled with the likes of the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs for the top of the Western Conference. That includes the former scaling past Christie and company during the memorable 2002 conference finals.

But Christie was lacking an athletic younger option at guard. He relied on older veterans like Russell Westbrook and DeMar DeRozan to lead the offensive attack last season. Yet now Acuff is looking like the one capable of igniting Christie's transition attack.

Sacramento still found itself down by 14 against the Pelicans before the fourth quarter arrived. But Acuff continued his stellar night, hitting eight more points to raise the total to 29 on the evening. He and De'Andre Hunter rose as the lone Kings players to surpass the 20-point mark in the game.