The Detroit Pistons may have a bit of explaining to do as far as the NBA is concerned
On Monday night, the Detroit Pistons set out for Charlotte with intentions to snap the Hornets’ nine-game winning streak, which was the longest such active run in the NBA. But when a hard foul on Jalen Duren turned physical in the third quarter, both teams engaged in a bench-clearing brawl that caused a total of four players to be ejected from the game.
After the initial foul, Duren shoved Diabate in the face, and the Hornets forward opted to fight through several teammates and staff to get a piece of JD. After Duren backed off, Hornets forward Miles Bridges socked JD in the face, and that’s when Isaiah Stewart entered the picture.
Beef Stew leapt off the bench and darted into action, which will assuredly draw a lengthy suspension from the league. Stewart put Bridges in a headlock briefly as he peppered the Michigan State product with a flurry of punches, though it is unclear how many shots landed.
After the game, Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff issued support for his players after both Duren and Stewart were ejected, claiming that they were not instigators in the conflict.
“Our guys deal with a lot, but they’re not the ones that initiated,” Bickerstaff said. “They’re not the ones that crossed the line tonight. It was clear that through frustration because of what JD was doing that they crossed the line. I hate that it got as ugly as it got. That’s not something that you ever want to see. But if a guy throws a punch at you, you have a responsibility to protect yourself, and that’s what happened tonight. If you go back and watch the film, they’re the ones that initiated crossing the line and our guy had to defend himself.”
Given Stewart’s extensive disciplinary record with the NBA, he is likely to receive a lengthy suspension as the result of his Repeat Offender status.
“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.”
The Pistons played the rest of the game without their two most impactful big men down low, and Detroit was already shorthanded since Ron Holland missed the game due to personal reasons. But despite the short bench, the Pistons banded together and secured a tough, hard-fought 110-104 win over a red-hot Hornets club.
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