JB Bickerstaff’s Honest Statement on Pistons-Timberwolves Incident

From the jump, Sunday’s game was chippy. As frustration built, Naz Reid got in Holland’s face while pointing at the rookie and exchanging words. Holland wasn’t backing down. Eventually, DiVincenzo and Holland exchanged shoves, and the players started getting tangled up.

At that point, benches cleared, and others got involved. The referees decided that Isaiah Stewart and Marcus Sasser’s involvement was enough to have them ejected along with Holland, DiVincenzo, and Reid. There was a verbal exchange between Bickerstaff and Prigioni, which led to their ejections.

“There were things said by their assistant coach,” Bickerstaff explained after the game.

“I’m in the same boat as my guys are in. We’re going to defend each other, and I’m not going to let people say belligerent things about my guys. It’s that simple. He said what he said. He knows what he said. Again, I didn’t think it crossed the line to escalation of anything, but in that moment, I understand the refs’ position. You can’t just say anything to people or about people and just expect it to be OK.”

While the Pistons had a comfortable lead at that point in the game, they lost their momentum in the second half. Without three more rotational players, Detroit simply lacked the depth to overcome Minnesota’s attack. With that, the Pistons snapped their winning streak before heading into a tough test against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night.

Considering everything that went down on Sunday, there is a chance the Pistons could be shorthanded once again.

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