CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After what Jalen Duren of the Detroit Pistons deemed a hard foul from the Charlotte Hornets’ Moussa Diabaté, Duren approached Diabaté to seemingly let him know he felt the foul was excessive.

Duren and Diabaté were nose to nose before Duren pushed Diabaté away, making contact witih Diabaté’s face, and Diabaté then swung at Duren.

Security tried its best to intervene, but Diabaté was irate and intent on getting to Duren.

Once it seemed Diabaté had been corralled, Charlotte’s Miles Bridges went after Duren and proceeded to throw a punch, prompting Detroit’s Isaiah Stewart to charge toward Bridges from off the bench. Once Stewart got to Bridges, he put the Hornets forward in a headlock, and punches were thrown before security and both coaching staffs were able to separate the teams.

Stewart, Duren, Diabaté and Bridges were ejected before Detroit closed out the 110-104 win and stopped Charlotte’s nine-game win streak. Hornets coach Charles Lee was later ejected in the fourth quarter when expressing his displeasure with a foul called against his team.

Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff defended his team after the game.

“Our guys deal with a lot, but they’re not the ones that initiated. They’re not the ones that crossed the line tonight,” Bickerstaff said. “It was clear, through frustration because of what (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. That’s what happened tonight.

J.B. Bickerstaff on tonight’s altercation between the Pistons and Hornets: pic.twitter.com/kkZSVg9uRh

— Hunter Patterson (@HunterPatterson) February 10, 2026

“You go back and watch the film, they’re the ones that initiated and crossing the line. Our guy had to defend himself.”

Crew chief John Goble, who led the pool report, weighed in on why each player was ejected.

“The respective players engaged in fighting activity during the dead ball,” Goble said. “After review, we assessed fighting fouls, and by rule, they were ejected from the game.”

Duren, who finished with 15 points, five rebounds and two assists in 20 minutes of action before his ejection, spoke to the intensity of the game that led to the altercation.

Jalen Duren on tonight’s altercation:

“Just an overly competitive game, emotions flaring. At the end of the day we would love to keep it basketball, but things happen.” pic.twitter.com/4eq7jsdtcT

— Hunter Patterson (@HunterPatterson) February 10, 2026

“As the year has been going on, teams like to try to get in our heads. This isn’t the first time people have tried to be extra aggressive with us, talk to us, whatever the case may be,” Duren said from inside the Spectrum Center visitors locker room. “I think as a group, we’ve done an OK job at kind of handling that energy and intensity. But at the end of the day, emotions got high, everybody (was) being competitive. We’re all men, so things happen.”

It remains to be seen how the NBA will handle the altercation, but there will almost certainly be fines and suspensions for players from both teams. The Pistons now head to Toronto to take on the Raptors on Wednesday before reaching the All-Star break. Detroit sits atop the Eastern Conference with a 5 1/2-game lead over the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics.