Charlotte Hornets’ streak-busting loss to Pistons marred by five ejections
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Five ejections, including coach Charles Lee, marred Hornets’ 110-104 loss.
- Third-quarter Diabate–Duren altercation sparked ensuing skirmishes.
- Hornets nearly erased a 12-point deficit late; assistant Lamar Skeeter closed.
These Charlotte Hornets have plenty of fight in them. Literally.
Instead of people remembering Monday night’s tilt for the Hornets’ chance to equal a feat that had only been accomplished once in franchise history, a third-quarter scrum and the ejection of coach Charles Lee headlined their 110-104 defeat to the Detroit Pistons at Spectrum Center.
Miles Bridges and Moussa Diabate, along with Detroit’s Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren, were ejected for fighting, marring what was an intriguing game between the top team in the Eastern Conference and the one featuring the NBA’s longest current win streak.
Rather than a storyline surrounding the Hornets’ quest for their first 10-game win streak since 1994-95, the supercharged atmosphere in the aftermath of the passionate fracas took over.
“I think that’s the game,” Brandon Miller said. “A lot of competitors on the floor, doing what they love to do. The emotions are high, so of course some things escalate like that. But I think (it’s) just putting it to the side and just focus on what you need to focus on.
“I think that’s kind of our mindset after that happened.”
With the Hornets in a 70-62 hole, Duren and Diabate got tangled up inside the paint. Officials called Diabate for a foul. The two slowly approached each other and Diabate put his head down to butt up against Duren’s forehead, leading to Duren taking a slap and swipe at Diabate.
Diabate went right back at Duren, and a throng of bodies assembled. Diabate got incensed again and stormed toward Duren just in front of the crowd opposite the Hornets’ bench, leading to Hornets head of security Tony Datcher trying to hold Diabate back.
While that was happening, Bridges remained furious at Duren and pointed at him, which ignited another mini scrum. Stewart wasn’t in the game and came off the bench to confront Bridges, who tackled Stewart like they were in Super Bowl LX.
“The respective players engaged in fighting activity during the dead ball,” head referee John Goble said when asked about ruling following the game by The Charlotte Observer. “After review, we assessed fighting fouls and by rule they were ejected from the game.”
The wild night didn’t end there.
Lee was ejected in a separate incident, with 5:54 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Officials whistled the Hornets’ Grant Williams for an offensive foul against the Pistons’ Paul Reed, and Lee had seen enough, charging out onto the floor. Lee’s pronounced anger forced Brandon Miller to hold him back — he was that angry.
“I take ownership of it,” Lee said. “I thought that we were competing our tails off. I thought that it was a very physical game and you know, Grant’s walking down the paint and barely touched somebody and the guy fell over and that’s what we’re going to call the foul.
“So, again, they have a hard job to have to make these calls, but I don’t think that that was the consistency of what had been called the rest of the game.”
Exactly why was Lee tossed? Goble explained.
“After the foul call,” Goble said, “Coach Lee comes onto the floor and aggressively pursues the official and had to be restrained by his player.”
Which even caught Miller off guard. He wasn’t expecting that to pop up on his bingo card.
“That’s our head honcho, a leader for us,” Miller said. “To see him have our back like that, I take my hat’s off to him. But you’ve got to stay focused and just focus on the right things.”
Lee wasn’t around, then, to see the Hornets nearly fully erase a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit, turning the reins over to assistant Lamar Skeeter to finish out one of the craziest nights in uptown in recent memory.
Charlotte couldn’t get enough defensive stops down the stretch, however, and saw its nine-game win streak — which was the longest since 1999 — halted.
“This was a freaking great game for us,” Lee said. “Phenomenal opportunity for us to play the top seed right now, the No. 1 team in the East. They’ve been in the playoffs, they’ve been tested, they bring a level of physicality and competitiveness to them. I think they bring out the best in you and overall our guys responded to every run they went on, all the physicality.
“I think we got a lot better tonight. The result won’t reflect that. But, again, I thought our process for most of the night, our competitive spirit, our togetherness was really good.”
Just not quite at the level necessary to take down the Pistons.
“We know we’re a good team, and we can compete with anybody,” Kon Knueppel said. “When we focus on ourselves and what we can do to the best of our ability, we’re going to be all right.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2026 at 10:01 PM with the headline "Charlotte Hornets’ streak-busting loss to Pistons marred by five ejections."
