{"id":596044,"date":"2026-02-11T04:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T04:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/596044\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T04:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T04:45:18","slug":"miles-bridges-breaks-silence-on-pistons-hornets-fight-as-suspension-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/596044\/","title":{"rendered":"Miles Bridges Breaks Silence on Pistons-Hornets Fight as Suspension Looms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/topic\/sports-nba-hornets\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Charlotte Hornets<\/a> hosted the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/topic\/sports-nba-pistons\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Detroit Pistons<\/a> in a compelling game that featured a near-upset comeback by the home team, following a brawl that broke out on the court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">During the third quarter of the Pistons&#8217; 110-106 victory against the Hornets, tempers flared in an incident involving Detroit&#8217;s All-Star Jalen Duren, who slapped the Hornets Moussa Diabate in the face. That caused Charlotte&#8217;s Miles Bridges to come to the aid of his teammate as they both went after Duren.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/topic\/sports-nba\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBA<\/a> referees, other players in the game, and coaches all got involved in trying to break things up as the chaotic group moved to different areas of the hardwood. Ultimately, the refs ejected Diabate, Bridges, Duren, and the Pistons&#8217; Isaiah Stewart from the game for their roles in the altercation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Read more: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/sports\/nba\/hornets-coach-assigns-blame-for-costly-ejection-after-pistons-fight-11499691\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hornets Coach Assigns Blame for Costly Ejection After Pistons Fight<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img id=\"11501106\" alt=\"Charlotte Hornets Miles Bridges and Detroit Pistons Jalen Duren fight\" caption=\"CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 09: Moussa Diabate #14 and Miles Bridges #0 of the Charlotte Hornets fight Jalen Duren #0 of the Detroit Pistons during the second half of a basketball game at Spectrum Center on February 09, 2026 in Charlotte, North Carolina.  (Photo by David Jensen\/Getty Images)\" captionoverride=\"CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 09: Moussa Diabate #14 and Miles Bridges #0 of the Charlotte Hornets fight Jalen Duren #0 of the Detroit Pistons during the second half of a basketball game at Spectrum Center on February 09, 2026, in Charlotte, North Carolina.  (Photo by David Jensen\/Getty Images)\" credit=\"Photo by David Jensen\/Getty Images\" sourcealt=\"\" sources=\"[]\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"5002\" height=\"3335\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770785118_429_GettyImages-2260799499.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Less than 24 hours after the dust settled from Monday night&#8217;s fight, Hornets players spoke to reporters during media availability. That included both Bridges and Diabate, who broke their silence following the wild incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">&#8220;For me, I should have just went to Moussa and made sure he was good. Like you said, it&#8217;s a learning experience,&#8221; Bridges told one reporter who asked how he might have handled it differently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">&#8220;I just want to say sorry to the Hornets organization for the whole incident and sorry to my teammates. But I also want people to know I&#8217;m always gonna protect my teammates,&#8221; he said, adding, &#8220;You just don&#8217;t want anybody coming into our arena thinking they can do whatever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Bridges said seeing Duren &#8220;push Moussa in his face&#8221; was &#8220;the most disrespectful thing&#8221; someone could do, causing him to react in the intense moment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Diabate also <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rodboone\/status\/2021284078591389739?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">addressed the media<\/a> in some remarks on Tuesday, expressing remorse over what happened on the court in his team&#8217;s home game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">\u201cI fouled him. We get into each other\u2019s faces. It\u2019s basketball. It\u2019s fine at the end of the day,\u201d he told reporters, adding he \u201clost control\u201d once Duren put a hand in his face.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Diabate also apologized to the organization for his involvement in the altercation. Most likely, he and Bridges will receive at least a game or two of suspension, while other players involved in the incident could face longer penalties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">After Diabate\u2019s hard foul on Duren in the third quarter, the Pistons star responded by shoving him in the face. Diabate threw a punch, and others got involved, including Bridges and the Pistons\u2019 Stewart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">All four players were tossed from the game after the massive brawl and will now await their punishments for the altercation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">ESPN&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ClutchPoints\/status\/2021323769617273149?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">NBA insider Bobby Marks<\/a> indicated Bridges, Duren, and Diabate are likely to get more than two games for their roles in a fight that involved benches and got dangerously close to the crowd. However, he believes Stewart will receive a much <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BobbyMarks42\/status\/2021039728653729819?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">lengthier suspension for his involvement<\/a> and his &#8220;repeat offender status&#8221; in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Read more: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/sports\/nba\/jayson-tatum-injury-update-encouraging-boston-celtics-11485829\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jayson Tatum Injury Update is Encouraging for Celtics<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">For more about the NBA, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/sports\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Newsweek Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Charlotte Hornets hosted the Detroit Pistons in a compelling game that featured a near-upset comeback by the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,684,473,3878,188,685,10510,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-596044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-charlotte-hornets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-charlotte","10":"tag-charlotte-hornets","11":"tag-charlottehornets","12":"tag-detroit-pistons","13":"tag-hornets","14":"tag-miles-bridges","15":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116050181235134214","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}