The second half of Monday night’s contest between the Charlotte Hornets and the Detroit Pistons was full of chaos at the Spectrum Center.
A group of four players and Hornets head coach Charles Lee didn’t make it to the end of the Pistons’ 110-104 win in North Carolina.
Advertisement
The first skirmish erupted midway through the third quarter after Hornets forward Moussa Diabate fouled Pistons center Jalen Duren as he was going up for a shot in the middle of the lane. The two got face-to-face after the foul was called, and words were exchanged briefly, before Duren gave Diabate a hard shove to his face.
Charlotte Hornets forward Moussa Diabate is held back as he goes after Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren (0) during a fight on Monday night. (AP/Nell Redmond)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
That set Diabate off. He charged at Duren, and things immediately escalated into a huge altercation that took several assistants and officials to break up. Diabate tried to swing at Duren as he was being held back, then he broke away to charge at Duren again.
Eventually, after Diabate was pulled away, Miles Bridges charged at Duren and threw a punch. That prompted Isaiah Stewart — who wasn’t even in the game at the time — to run off the bench and scuffle with Bridges. A second scrum then moved over toward the team benches while officials had to separate that group.
Eventually, officials got things back under control. After a long review, Diabate, Bridges, Duren and Stewart were all ejected from the game. The league is sure to assess further penalties in the coming days.
Advertisement
The Pistons led 70-62 at the time.
After the contest, Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff was quick to place blame on the Hornets for the incident.
“It was clear, through frustration because of what JD was doing, that they crossed the line,” Bickerstaff said, via The Athletic’s Hunter Patterson. “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.”
Hornets coach Charles Lee ejected, too
Though he wasn’t involved in the first incident, Lee was ejected from the game midway through the fourth quarter.
Hornets guard Grant Williams was called for an offensive foul after he charged into Paul Reed near the top of the key, which sent Reed down to the court. Williams didn’t have the ball at the time, and seemed a bit confused by the call.
But Lee wasn’t having it. He started screaming at the officials. He was held back by Williams, Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball as he continued lighting up the referees. Lee was quickly thrown out of the game.
“I take ownership of it. … I thought it was a very physical game,” Lee said, via The Associated Press’ Steve Reed. “Grant’s walking down in pain and barely touched somebody and the guy fell over, and that’s what we were gonna call a foul. Again, they have a hard job to have to make these calls, but I don’t think that that was like the consistency of what had been called the rest of the game.”
Lee is in his second season leading the Hornets this season, which marks his first head-coaching job in the league.
Advertisement
The Pistons, who led nearly the entire way in the second half, ended up holding on down the stretch for the six-point win. Cade Cunningham led the way with 33 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. Duncan Robinson added 18 points. The Pistons now sit at 39-13 on the season.
Miller led the Hornets with 24 points in the loss, which snapped a nine-game win streak. Kon Knueppel added 20 points and five rebounds, and Ball finished with 20 points.