CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In a contentious battle between the best team in the East and the conference’s hottest team, the Detroit Pistons walked away with a 110-104 win, snapping the Charlotte Hornets’ nine-game win streak.
The game wound up being about more than hoops, with punches being thrown and five ejections: the Pistons’ Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren, and the Hornets’ Moussa Diabaté, Miles Bridges and coach Charles Lee. Cade Cunningham scored a game-high 33 points for Detroit, adding nine rebounds and seven assists.
Detroit overcame another rough night from 3-point range, shooting just 5 of 25 from behind the arc as a unit. The Pistons’ 60 points in the paint and 23 points off Charlotte’s 18 turnovers, two of their greatest strengths thus far this season, aided in their ability to rally despite their poor shooting.
Ahead of the game, Lee ironically credited Detroit with helping the Hornets embrace their own physicality after being overwhelmed by the Pistons’ physicality in their first meeting this season, in which Detroit walloped the Charlotte, 112-86, on Dec. 20.
While the focus will surely be on the third-quarter altercation, the game itself was a high-level competition. The Pistons (39-13) further solidified themselves as the best team in the East, and are now just a game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder (41-13) for the best record in the association.
Cunningham spoke to Detroit’s depth and resolve in being able to compartmentalize what happened in the third quarter and still find a way to win.
“We’ve got a really deep team, you know?” Cunningham told a group of reporters from the Spectrum Center’s visiting locker room. “A lot of guys that wait on their number to be called and they step up when they’re ready. Tonight was another night of that. Paul Reed doesn’t play the whole first half, doesn’t play up until that moment.
“(Duren) is playing well, Stew is playing well and for (Reed) to step in an be another big presence that adds a lot to the game says a lot about his character and his mindset going into games.”
Before concluding his availability, Cunningham made sure to dedicate his performance to his coach at Bowie High School in Arlington, Tex., Allen Gratts, who Cunningham said passed away Sunday evening.
“Anybody that’s watching from back home, we stick together,” Cunningham continued. “Coach Gratts was a big part of my life. I just think about all the people that helped me along this journey to get to where I’m at today. So I’m thankful, I know he’s looking down. Just wanted to pray for my school, pray for everybody, his family, his friends … and I hope I continue to make him proud.”
Asked Cade Cunningham about the Pistons’ resolve in tonight’s win. He ended by dedicating this game to his high school coach, Allen Gratts, who passed away last night: pic.twitter.com/WWQymG59xW
— Hunter Patterson (@HunterPatterson) February 10, 2026
Cunningham scored 14 of his 33 in the second half, with nine coming in the fourth quarter, to guide the Pistons to the win. But to his point, Reed was crucial in Detroit being able to close it out. Reed tacked on 12 points, three rebounds (all coming on the offensive glass), and two steals in 18 minutes of action.
“It wasn’t the first time, probably won’t be the last,” Reed said when asked about about his ability to perform at a high level when his number is called. “I’m just trying to be dependable, you know? I want my teammates to be able to depend on me. I take a lot of pride in that.”
The Pistons pulled away during the second and third quarters, outscoring the Hornets 59-45 during that span. They built up at 16-point lead after the ejections, which Reed and Cunningham helped kickstart, before Charlotte came surging back into the game during the fourth.
Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff applauded his team’s focus to lock back in after the fracas concluded, and weighed in on what he felt led to the altercation.
“I thought our guys did a great job of playing within the lines,” Bickerstaff said. “Our big guys, in particular, on a night-by-night basis deal with a lot. They’re treated differently as far as what’s allowed to (happen to) them physically. If you go back and watch our games, in the trenches, those guys get beat up night in and night out. They do a great job of maintaining their composure.
“Our group tonight did a great job of sticking with it, understanding what was most important and figuring out a way to win down the stretch.”
There will likely be suspensions coming for both teams, but the Pistons’ play emphasized their status as the East’s best team. Detroit will now head to Toronto to face the conference’s fifth-seeded Raptors on Wednesday before entering the All-Star break.
The Pistons now have a 5 1/2-game lead atop the East over the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics after Monday’s highly-contested victory.
“I think it says a lot about our grit and our resilience,” Cunningham said. “It was a lot of emotion to the game, fans were into it. But for us to stay together and pull through, it was a great win for us.”