Sacramento Kings can’t combat Zach Edey’s size in loss to Memphis Grizzlies
Memphis Grizzlies big man Zach Edey is one of the largest players in the NBA at 7-foot-3 and 305 pounds.
The 23-year-old center was large and in charge in Sunday’s game against the Sacramento Kings.
Edey put up 32 points and 17 rebounds to lead the Grizzlies to a 115-107 victory over the Kings before an announced crowd of 15,901 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
The Kings couldn’t do much to combat the size and paint presence of Edey, who was virtually unstoppable while going 16 of 20 from the field.
“When he’s by the rim and we don’t fight early, it’s going to be easy for him,” Kings guard Malik Monk said. “He’s too big, too strong. He just lays the ball in, and we didn’t do our job early, so we made it easy for him.”
The Grizzlies amassed a huge 52-34 rebounding advantage while outscoring the Kings 22-10 in second-chance points. The Grizzlies amassed a huge 52-34 rebounding advantage while outscoring the Kings 22-10 in second-chance points. Sacramento received big lift from its second unit, but starters Russell Westbrook (-24), Zach LaVine (-30), DeMar DeRozan (-9), Keegan Murray (-20) and Drew Eubanks (-21) all finished with negative plus/minus ratings.
Christie was asked about the struggles of his starters following the game.
“It’s tough,” he said. “It’s the NBA. Some nights you get going and some nights you don’t, but instead of looking at it that way, I look at more as a credit to those guys who came in and really played hard as heck and just got after it, got us back in the ballgame, put us in position to close it out and win. We were just unable to.”
DeRozan scored 23 points to lead the Kings (5-16), who were trying to avenge one of their worst losses of the season after falling 137-96 to the Grizzlies on Nov. 20 in Memphis.
Monk came off the bench to score 21 points with six rebounds and six assists for Sacramento, which has lost 11 of its last 13 games. LaVine added 19 points. Murray had 12 points, a career-high five steals and three blocked shots.
Cam Spencer scored 16 points for the Grizzlies (9-12), who have won five of their last six games despite the absence of Ja Morant. Former Folsom High School star Jaylen Wells had 15. Jaren Jackson Jr. had 13 points, six rebounds and five assists.
The Kings made only one field goal in the final four minutes while struggling to stop the Grizzlies from scoring.
“Obviously when you get stops you can get out and run, but we were going to play out of a couple different sets,” Christie said. “We just didn’t get to them. We got to some isolations and different things, and some of them were decent shots. We just didn’t knock them down, but that’s where execution has to come in at a high level.”
“You’ve got to slow down, make sure you get us into something. Once we’re into something, normally the floor is balanced and we end up with a particularly good shot most of the time, but we’ll go back and look at the film. These aren’t things that we have not talked about previously and gone over. We’ve just got to keep hammering it home. These are the feelings that don’t feel good, obviously, when you’re not winning your ballgames, but there were a lot of guys who were out there doing the right thing, and that will be good to watch.”
Halftime report
The Grizzlies led 23-15 midway through the first quarter after going 10 of 16 from the field and 3 of 3 from 3-point range. Wells had the hot hand early in the game, scoring eight points on 3-of-4 shooting with two 3-pointers in the opening minutes.
Memphis went up by as many as nine in the opening period. The Kings came back to take a 35-31 lead after the bench unit of Monk, Keon Ellis, Nique Clifford, Precious Achiuwa and Maxime Raynaud produced a series of defensive stops. Sacramento’s defense created opportunities on offense, including an electrifying dunk by Monk and a 3-pointer by Clifford.
The Kings led by five early in the second quarter. The Grizzlies came back to take a 46-45 lead on a 3-pointer by Spencer. They carried a 63-59 lead into the halftime break after getting a basket from Edey with 3.4 second remaining.
Second-half summary
The Grizzlies opened up a 13-point lead after outscoring the Kings 10-0 to start the second half. Sacramento staged an 11-1 run to tie the game on a basket by Murray after Monk, Achiuwa and Clifford entered the game later in the third quarter.
The Kings regained the lead on a 3-pointer by DeRozan. They outscored the Grizzlies 17-3 over the final 3:21 to take an 87-83 lead into the fourth quarter.
Memphis reclaimed the lead on a dunk by Jackson early in the fourth quarter. They went up 97-89 on a 3-pointer by Spencer before a three-point play by Westbrook sparked a 12-2 run for Sacramento.
The Kings tied the game on a 3-pointer by LaVine and took a 101-99 lead on a basket by Monk, but Edey scored eight points to fuel a 13-4 run as the Grizzlies pulled away.
Up next
The Kings will have Monday and Tuesday off before starting a three-game road trip against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday at Toyota Center.
This is the first of four games the Kings will play against the Rockets (13-4) this season. The Rockets have won three in a row and eight of their last nine going into Monday’s game against the Utah Jazz.
Houston is led by 15-time All-Star Kevin Durant, who is averaging 24.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists. Alperen Sengun is averaging 22.0 points, 9.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists. Amen Thompson (17.4 ppg), Jabari Smith Jr. (15.1 ppg), Reed Sheppard (14.3 ppg) and Tari Eason (11.5 ppg) are also scoring in double figures.
This story was originally published November 30, 2025 at 8:38 PM.
