Washington Mystics
A skirmish took place in Minnesota on March 30, resulting in five NBA players and two coaches being ejected from the Timberwolves’ and Detroit Pistons’ basketball game before halftime at the Target Center.
According to CNN Sports, with less than 10 minutes left in the first half of the Timberwolves-Pistons game, a fight occurred on the court. It started when Pistons forward Ron Holland fouled Timberwolves forward Naz Reid. The two started yelling at each other, and Reid’s teammate Donte DiVincenzo went in between them. The scuffle then became a brawl. Luckily, security and team personnel were able to end it without any of the players being injured.
Game officials ejected Pistons players Isiah Stewart, Holland, and Marcus Sasser, along with their head coach, JB Bickerstaff. The Timberwolves lost Reid, DiVencenzo, and assistant coach Pablo Prigioni.
At that point, the Pistons were winning 39-30, but the Timberwolves pulled out the victory, 123-104.
Both head coaches responded to the incident after the game.
“Obviously, things went too far, Bickerstaff stated. “What you see is guys looking out for one another, guys trying to protect one another, trying to have one another’s back and that’s that.”
“The game didn’t go how we hoped it would have gone. … You regret where all of it took place. That’s not something you ever want to see happen. I thought our guys stood their ground, defended each other, and had each other’s back. And those are non-negotiables in our locker room. … I thought our guys did that tonight.”
Minnesota head coach Chris Finch placed the blame on the Timberwolves due to their aggressive play during the game.
“Two guys went at it, and it spilled over into the crowd, which is super dangerous, obviously just kept escalating and escalating, mostly from their side to be honest with you,” Finch said.
“… I thought it was bound to happen. It just felt like it was coming. You’ve just been in enough basketball games to kind of feel this coming. It’s unfortunate. We knew they were a super physical team. They hit you, they hold you. All these things that physical teams do. But I just thought it had got to a point where players were going to take matters into their own hands.”
The Timberwolves will play their next game on the road against the Denver Nuggets, and the Pistons will be in Oklahoma City to play the Thunder for their next contest.
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