Unless a ruling arrives over the next several hours, the Detroit Pistons still have not received word from the NBA offices regarding any potential disciplinary action stemming from Monday night’s brawl with the Charlotte Hornets. Now, Isaiah Stewart will assuredly receive a suspension for leaving the bench, but Pistons center Jalen Duren’s future is less certain considering his role in the fight. 

Until the league says otherwise, the Pistons are expected to rock with the same starting lineup tonight against the Toronto Raptors in their final game before All-Star Break. Last time out, the Pistons gutted out an overtly physical game against the Hornets by a 110-104 margin. Detroit point guard Cade Cunningham picked up the slack after Duren and Stewart were ejected with 33 points, nine rebounds and seven assists in the narrow victory over the Eastern Conference’s hottest squad considering Charlotte’s nine-game winning streak entering the matchup. 

If either Stewart or Duren miss tonight’s game, the Pistons will need to manage their depth carefully since Ron Holland has already been ruled out, and that’s an important trio for Detroit. 

Update: The NBA issued suspensions for Stewart and Duren with the former missing seven games, while the latter is suspended for two contests. 

At 32-22 in the regular season, the Raptors are in third place of the Atlantic Division with wing Brandon Ingram as the team’s leading scorer with 22 points per game, and he’s a newly-minted All-Star, serving as a Steph Curry replacement. Scottie Barnes, however, is not far behind with 19.4 points and 8.4 rebounds each night, and the Raptors forward is also slated to participate in the All-Star Game. 

Over their last five games, the Raptors are 3-2 with an active two-game winning streak after defeating a pair of Central Division opponents in the Pacers and Bulls. From a stylistic standpoint, the Raptors stack up as a quality matchup for Detroit considering the similarities between the team’s offensive philosophies. The Raptors are one of the few teams in the league shooting at a lower clip from three-point range than the Pistons, and they both rank top five in terms of points in the paint. So, the Raptors have found success recently with a blueprint that Detroit has ridden to a first place position in the East. Styles make fights (no pun intended given the Pistons’ recent activity) and tonight’s matchup should deliver on paper. 

After missing the Hornets game due to personal reasons, Pistons forward Ron Holland is still out for tonight’s game. Detroit has not indicated when Holland will rejoin the lineup, so the Pistons will be without one of their primary defensive spark plugs who has been a dominant force on the team’s second unit all year long. Tolu Smith, who’s nursing a calf injury, is also out against Toronto. 

As for the Raptors, Chucky Hepburn and Collin Murray-Boyles are slated to miss tonight’s game as well, while center Jakob Poeltl is a game-time decision regarding his back injury. 

In the aftermath of Monday night’s scuffle, the Pistons inadvertently demonstrated that their mantra of sticking together all the time is reinforced by actions rather than just words. Last week, Stewart was grabbed by Denver Nuggets center Jones Valanciunas and placed in a momentary headlock. Duren, who was lurking nearby, immediately shoved Valanciunas to stick up for his teammate, and Beef Stew obviously repaid that favor on Monday against the Hornets. 

The Pistons are a tight-knit group, and that fabric starts top-down. After the victory over Charlotte, Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff spoke about the loyalty that his players feel to one another. 

“Obviously, I repeat, we don’t want to see it get to that point,” Bickerstaff said. “If you go back and watch the film, they ran multiple guys at JD. JD and Stew consider themselves to be brothers. When you run two guys at one guy and you’ve already crossed the line, human instinct tells him to protect his little brother. Again, 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 aren’t the ones who crossed the line and initiated this.”

Some may not agree with Bickerstaff’s assessment since Duren stuck his hand directly in Moussa Diabate’s face to kick off the fight, but the Hornets forward did initiate contact by lowering his head into Duren’s face, so it will be interesting to see how the NBA adjudicates the scrap. 

During Toronto’s recent win over the Pacers, Barnes posted 25 points and 14 rebounds in a dominant effort against their Eastern Conference foe. Barnes has performed as an effective scorer all season long and contributes on the glass, but his ability to act as a secondary playmaker with 5.6 assists per game is one of the more underrated facets of the All-Star’s game. 

Pistons forward Tobias Harris is likely to draw the Barnes assignment tonight, so the vet’s ability to stick with the 6-8 Florida State product will be a key matchup all night long. 

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