Cameron Boozer scored a career-high 27 points as the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Sacramento Kings 136-105 on Saturday, October 31, 2026, at the FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee, to match the best start in franchise history. The Grizzlies Kings 136-105 win lifted Memphis to 6-0, equalling the 6-0 start of the 2014-15 team, and left the Grizzlies as the NBA's only undefeated team — while Sacramento fell to 0-6.
Boozer added nine rebounds to his 27 points, and Isaiah Stewart gave Memphis a lift off the bench with 24 points. Darius Acuff scored 38 points in defeat for the Kings, but Sacramento never recovered after Memphis opened up a double-digit lead and then blew the game open in the third quarter, outscoring the visitors to lead 108-80 going into the final period. Memphis led 66-55 at half-time and never looked back, turning what had been billed as a possible trap game — against a winless opponent, the night after a long week — into a 31-point rout.
The game followed a familiar pattern for this Memphis team: a solid first half, then a third quarter that ended the argument. The Grizzlies led by 11 at the break, 66-55, and then produced the kind of quarter that has defined their start — disciplined, fast and ruthless. By the end of the third, the lead was 108-80, the starters could rest, and the only remaining question was the final margin. It finished at 31 points, 136-105, a scoreline that reflected the game rather than flattering the winners.
Boozer was the story. The rookie, who had already announced himself two nights earlier with the first triple-double of his career — 18 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists in his fifth NBA game, in the 124-103 win at Portland that took Memphis to 5-0 — went one better against Sacramento. His 27 points were a career high, and they came with nine rebounds, one short of another double-double. It was the kind of performance that turns a promising start into a conversation: Boozer is no longer just a rookie playing well, he is the leading scorer on the league's only unbeaten team.
Stewart's 24 points off the bench underlined the depth that has made this start possible. Memphis has now won with different players leading the scoring on different nights — eight Grizzlies reached double figures in the Portland win — and that depth is what separates a hot streak from a genuine contender. Sacramento, by contrast, had only Acuff's 38 points to show for the night. The Kings are 0-6, and while Acuff's scoring suggests individual talent is not the problem, the defence that conceded 136 points, including 108 through three quarters, clearly is.
Context matters here, because 6-0 means something specific in Memphis. The franchise record for the best start, set in 2014-15, had stood for more than a decade, and Thursday's win at Portland had left the current team one win short of it. The Grizzlies had arrived at 5-0 as one of only two unbeaten teams left, alongside Houston, and Saturday's results removed the other one from that list. Memphis now stands alone.
The Portland game is worth recalling because it showed how this team wins. Boozer's triple-double in his fifth game was the headline, but the supporting cast was the substance: Stewart scored 18 off the bench, and seven other Grizzlies reached double figures. The Kings game was different in shape — Boozer as scorer rather than facilitator, Stewart again prominent off the bench — but similar in substance: depth, balance and a third quarter that broke the opponent's resistance.
For Sacramento, the background is bleaker. At 0-6, the Kings are the only team in the league without a win, and they have now been beaten by 31 points by a team that was supposed to be vulnerable to a trap game. Acuff's 38 points will make the box score look respectable, but the Kings' problem is not scoring; it is stopping anyone, and Memphis scored 136 points without ever needing to play its starters down the stretch.
Tying a franchise record is not the same as breaking it, and Memphis will know that. The next game — at home against the New Orleans Pelicans on November 2 at 7 p.m. CT — is now the record game, and it will carry a different kind of pressure. Trap games are one thing; record games, at home, against a team that has already been beaten by New Orleans' rivals this week, are another. But the Grizzlies have earned the right to enjoy this one first: 6-0, with a rookie leading the scoring, a bench producing 24 points, and a defence that held a team to 80 points through three quarters.
The wider league picture also favours Memphis right now. Houston, the other unbeaten team at the start of Saturday, lost ground with its own results, and the Saturday slate elsewhere — Cleveland beating Milwaukee 136-111, Houston beating Oklahoma City 119-98, Philadelphia beating Charlotte 109-104 behind Tyrese Maxey's 38 points, New Orleans beating Atlanta 121-99, Portland beating Utah 112-90, and San Antonio beating Minnesota 121-111 behind Victor Wembanyama's 43 — left Memphis alone at the top of the early-season standings. Being the last unbeaten team in November does not win a championship, but it does change how opponents prepare for you, and how your own young players believe in themselves.
The numbers are the reaction that matters most. Boozer's career-high 27 points, with nine rebounds, two nights after a triple-double, is a statement. Stewart's 24 points off the bench is a statement about depth. A 31-point margin, built on a 108-80 third-quarter lead, is a statement about control. And 6-0, equalling the 2014-15 start, is a statement about history.
For Sacramento, Acuff's 38 points in defeat is the one bright line in an otherwise dark box score. The Kings' challenge now is not finding a scorer — Acuff has shown he can do that against anyone — but finding a defence that can keep them in games long enough for the scoring to matter. At 0-6, every game becomes more urgent, and the next loss will bring a different kind of scrutiny.
This game matters for Memphis because unbeaten starts change seasons. A 6-0 team with a rookie star, a productive bench and a defence that can hold an opponent to 80 points through three quarters is not just winning; it is building habits that survive when the shots stop falling. The Grizzlies' next test is whether they can handle being the hunted team, with every opponent now circling the Memphis game as a measuring stick.
It matters for Boozer because back-to-back statement games — a triple-double on Thursday, a career-high 27 on Saturday — move a player from prospect to storyline. Rookies are supposed to have quiet nights and learning curves; Boozer is having neither, and the league is noticing.
It matters for Sacramento because 0-6 is the kind of start that forces hard conversations. The Kings have talent, as Acuff's 38 points prove, but talent without defence is just entertainment, and the 136 points they conceded in Memphis were the latest evidence that something structural, not just a bad night, needs fixing.
Memphis returns to action on November 2 at home against the New Orleans Pelicans at 7 p.m. CT, with the franchise record on the line. A seventh straight win would give the Grizzlies the best start in their history outright, and it would do so in front of their own fans. The Pelicans, who beat Atlanta 121-99 on Saturday behind 25 points from Saddiq Bey and 20 from Jeremiah Fears, will not be a pushover — but then, neither were the Kings supposed to be a pushover, and Memphis won by 31.
Sacramento, meanwhile, must find a first win, and quickly. At 0-6, the Kings are running out of early-season excuses, and their next games will be judged not on effort but on results. For Memphis, the task is simpler and harder at the same time: keep winning, and keep believing that 6-0 is a beginning rather than a peak.
Memphis beat Sacramento 136-105 on Saturday, October 31, 2026, at the FedExForum in Memphis.
Boozer scored a career-high 27 points with nine rebounds. Two nights earlier he had recorded his first career triple-double against Portland.
The Grizzlies are 6-0, matching the franchise-best start set in 2014-15, and they are the NBA's only undefeated team. Sacramento fell to 0-6.
Isaiah Stewart scored 24 points off the bench for Memphis. Darius Acuff scored 38 points in defeat for Sacramento.
Memphis hosts the New Orleans Pelicans on November 2 at 7 p.m. CT, with a seventh straight win giving them the franchise record outright.
Related coverage: Cameron Boozer triple-double keeps Grizzlies unbeaten at 5-0 in Portland rout and Wembanyama drops 43 as Spurs beat Timberwolves 121-111. More NBA news is available on the US News Pulse homepage.
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