Four players were ejected following a fight during the third quarter of a game between the Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets on Monday, Feb. 9.
Suspensions could follow.
The brawl began bubbling when the Hornets’ Moussa Diabate delivered a hard foul on Pistons center Jalen Duren with more than seven minutes remaining in the quarter. The players exchanged words.
Duren shoved Diabate in the face, and Charlotte forward Miles Bridges shoved Duren. Diabate threw a punch at Duren and had to be held back by coaches and teammates, according to the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network. Pistons forward Tobias Harris also was among the many attempting to hold Diabate back.
Moments later, Bridges punched toward Duren. Pistons forward Isaiah Stewart, who was not in the game, rushed the floor and threw haymakers at Bridges. Although none connected, Stewart managed to put Bridges in a headlock. Players from both teams swarmed in to separate them.
‘Miles got some blows in,’ one announcer said on the broadcast of the game.
All four were ejected from the game, which the Pistons won 110-104.
‘Our guys deal with a lot, right? But they’re not the one’s that initiate it. They’re not the ones that crossed the line,’ Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said to reporters after the game. ‘It was clear, through frustration, because of what JD [Jalen Duren] 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. You go back and watch the film, they’re the ones that initiate it and crossing the line and our guy had to defend himself.’
Will Pistons and Hornets players be suspended for brawl?
Once the NBA assesses its discipline from this fight, expect several suspensions and fines to be levied, particularly for those such as Isaiah Stewart, who came off the bench.
‘You see it one way, I see it another way,’ Bickerstaff said after the game regarding Stewart’s involvement. ‘Obviously, I repeat, we don’t want to see it get to that point. When you go back and watch the film, they ran multiple guys at JD. JD [Duren] and Stew [Stewart] consider themselves to be brothers. If you run two guys at one guy, you’ve already crossed the line. Human instinct tells him to protect his little brother.’
According to the NBA rulebook, during fights or altercations, players who aren’t subbed in must remain on the sidelines, “in the immediate vicinity of their bench.” The league also stipulates that violators will be subject to an automatic one-game suspension without pay, with an additional fine of $50,000.
Because Stewart also threw punches and made contact with Hornets players, his suspension might be for multiple games.
‘I hate to see it again, but that’s the nature of what happened,’ Bickerstaff said. ‘I hate it for Stew because of the things that are going to follow. But again, we weren’t the ones that crossed the line tonight and initiated this.’