The Detroit Pistons cooled off one of the hottest teams in the NBA, defeating the Charlotte Hornets, 110-104. However, an intense scuffle between four players overshadowed the Pistons' road victory.
Detroit center Jalen Duren shoved Charlotte big man Moussa Diabate in the face after a hard foul in the third quarter. Both players exchanged swings while being separated by coaches and teammates. Hornets forward Miles Bridges got involved in punching Duren during the brawl, which prompted Pistons center Isaiah Stewart to get involved in the fight as well.
Detroit's head coach went to bat for his guys during his postgame media session, defending how the confrontation was escalated.
“We don't want to see it get to that point. But when you go back and watch the film, they ran multiple guys at J.D. (Jalen Duren). JD and Stew (Isaiah Stewart) consider themselves to be brothers. If you run two guys at one guy and you've already crossed the line, human instinct tells him to protect his little brother,” Bickerstaff explained. “I hate to see it again, but that's the nature of what happened. I hate it for Stew because of the things that are going to follow. But we weren't the ones who crossed the line and initiated this.”
Duren, Stewart, Diabate, and Bridges were all ejected for their part in the brawl. Duren walked out of the arena flexing his jersey, pointing to “Detroit” while talking to the crowd. Stewart was spotted walking to the locker room, talking to the cameras, stating, “Did y'all expect me to just stay on the bench?”
Each player involved is likely to be suspended due to the altercation. The NBA is strict against fighting, especially when it involves a player leaving the bench. Duren even weighed in with the media on what he believed led to the brewing fight after the game.
“Teams like to try and get into our heads. This isn't the first time teams have tried to be extra aggressive with us, talk to us, or whatever the case may be. As a group, we've done an ok job at handling that energy and intensity. At the end of the day, emotions got high. Everybody was being competitive; we're all men so things happen,” Duren explained.
Pistons snap Hornets' winning streak
The brawl took a lot of attention off of a heated game between two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. Charlotte was riding a nine-game winning streak coming into Monday night's matchup. Detroit walked away as the victor with their second straight victory and snapped Charlotte's streak.
The Pistons led by as many as 16 points on the road against the Hornets. Detroit managed to survive a hot-shooting night from the Hornets, as they connected on 19-of-47 3-point attempts. The Pistons stuck with their gameplan and identity by playing defense and executing offensively where they normally thrive.
The interior was controlled by the Pistons as they scored 60 points in the paint. Their defensive energy was on point as well as they managed to pull off 12 steals and forced the Hornets into 21 turnovers.
All-Star point guard Cade Cunningham led all scorers with 33 points. He also corralled nine rebounds and helped his teammates by dishing seven assists.
Guard Duncan Robinson put up 18 points in 24 minutes for the Pistons. Duren contributed 15 points before his ejection. Backup center Paul Reed was a key X-factor scoring 12 points, grabbing two steals, and pulling off one block.
The 39-13 Pistons are back in action against the Raptors in Toronto on Wednesday night.
