Detroit Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff leapt to the defence of his team, suggesting that the Charlotte Hornets initiated the "ugly" scenes in their 110-104 victory on Monday. 

Cade Cunningham led the way with 33 points and nine rebounds as the Pistons snapped Charlotte's four-game winning streak to improve to 39-13 in the NBA this season. 

However, that was not the main talking point as the Hornets' Moussa Diabate and Miles Bridges, along with Detroit's Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart were ejected from the game.

Midway through the third quarter, Duren was driving toward the basket when he was fouled by Diabate. Duren went face-to-face with Diabate and the two appeared to butt heads.

Duren then hit Diabate in the face, igniting a confrontation that lasted more than 30 seconds.

While Pistons forward Tobias Harris was holding Diabate back, the latter threw a punch at Duren. Duren walked away and Bridges charged at him, throwing a left-handed punch.

Duren retaliated with a punch. Diabate attempted to charge again at Duren and had to be held back. Stewart then left the bench to confront Bridges, who responded with a punch, and the players tussled.

"Our guys deal with a lot, but they're not the ones that initiated, they're not the ones who crossed the line tonight," Bickerstaff said.

"It was clear, through frustration, because of what J.D. [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. If you go back and watch the film, they're the ones who initiated crossing the line, and our guy had to defend himself."

Handled business. pic.twitter.com/PlaKCkOLA4

— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) February 10, 2026

Duren, meanwhile, played down the severity of the incident, and did not say how the fight started, referring to the video replay instead.

The 22-year-old center called it an "overly competitive game", and went on to add: "Emotions were flaring.

"At the end of the day, we would love to keep it basketball, but things happen. Everybody was just playing hard."

He added that opposing NBA teams have been trying to "get in our head" all season.

"This isn't the first time that people have tried to be extra aggressive with us and talk to us, whatever the case may be," Duren said.

"But as a group, we have done an OK job of handling that energy and intensity. At the end of the day, emotions got high with everybody being competitive. Things happen."

The ejections elevated an already intense crowd to a new level in a physical game and those emotions boiled over in the fourth quarter when Charlotte coach Charles Lee was also taken out of the game. 

Lee was ejected after having to be restrained by Brandon Miller from going after an official after his player, Grant Williams, collided with Detroit's Paul Reed.

"Grant was walking down the paint and barely touched somebody, and the guy fell over and that is what we are going to call a foul," Lee said.

"They have a hard job to make these calls, but I don't think that was the consistency with had been called the rest of the game."