Five players and two coaches were ejected from Sunday’s Detroit Pistons–Minnesota Timberwolves game after a fight spilled into the crowd at Target Center.
Early in the second quarter, Timberwolves big Naz Reid was fouled by Pistons forward Ron Holland II as he drove to the rim and attempted a layup. Reid took exception to the foul, pointing at Holland while saying something to him.
The incident escalated when Timberwolves guard Donte DiVincenzo began to push Holland, who wasn’t looking in his direction at first. Once Holland looked at DiVincenzo, the two locked arms and tussled around the baseline. They eventually fell into the front row of the stands.
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Soon, all 10 players on the court and multiple coaches and trainers were part of the scrum. As the players were being separated, Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and Timberwolves assistant Pablo Prigioni were screaming at each other and had to be separated by team personnel.
The two teams skirmished for over 30 seconds until the fight subsided. Following a long review, Reid, Holland, DiVincenzo, Pistons center Isaiah Stewart and Pistons guard Marcus Sasser were ejected, along with Bickerstaff and Prigioni.
The whole scene played out just 20 feet from new Timberwolves owner Alex Rodriguez, who walked over from his courtside seat in the aftermath and appeared to call for assistance for a fan who got caught in the middle of the melee.
The Pistons held a 39-29 lead with 8:36 remaining in the second quarter at the time of the incident in a battle between two playoff hopefuls. Stewart had received a technical foul just moments earlier when he bumped DiVincenzo hard after the whistle.
Detroit had won three straight, all with All-Star guard Cade Cunningham out with a calf injury. However, losing three rotation players in the second-quarter brawl proved to be too taxing on the Pistons’ depth. The Wolves remained patient with their attack and eventually wore down the Pistons to pull away for the 123-104 win.
Julius Randle had 26 points and eight rebounds, Anthony Edwards added 25 points, and Rudy Gobert put up 19 points and 25 rebounds to help Minnesota win for the third time in four games.
Malik Beasley led Detroit with 27 points. Tim Hardaway Jr. had 20, and Dennis Schroder added 11 points and 11 assists.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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