MINNEAPOLIS — Even before a fight broke out between the Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves that spilled into the stands at Target Center, Wolves coach Chris Finch could feel something coming.
The game between two of the most physical teams in the league was getting chippy and nasty, and Finch had an ominous feeling about where it was all headed.
“I thought leading up to that, that the game was way too physical,” Finch said. “I thought it was a little lopsided in its physicality, and I thought that 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.”
A fight breaks out in Minnesota between the Timberwolves and Pistons:
— The Athletic NBA (@TheAthleticNBA) March 31, 2025
The Pistons delight in bullying their opponents, and they were flexing and strutting through the first 15 minutes of the game, building a 16-point lead while former Timberwolf Malik Beasley knocked down 3-pointer after 3-pointer and talked trash to anyone within earshot while doing it.
When Pistons rookie Ron Holland II fouled Wolves forward Naz Reid on a drive to the basket with 8:36 remaining in the second quarter, the competitive tension that had been building boiled over.
After the whistle, Holland appeared to say something to Reid, who turned around and started waving his finger at Holland. That sparked even more of a verbal back-and-forth between the two.
Wolves guard Donte DiVincenzo stepped into the fray, grabbing Holland. The two tangled and fell into the front row of seats on the baseline under the Wolves’ basket as coaches from both benches and security personnel leaped into action.
Pistons guard Marcus Sasser tried to come to Holland’s aid, as did resident enforcer Isaiah Stewart, while coaches and security surrounded the fracas.
DiVincenzo was pinned with his back against the Target Center seats, and Reid and Holland both at his feet. When Stewart tried to grab Reid on the ground, appearing to put him in a choke hold, DiVincenzo threw his shoulder into the pile in front of him, trying to clear the way.
Even after the players were herded back onto the court and order started to be restored, Reid, Holland, Stewart and DiVincenzo continued to bark at each other. The verbal sparring extended to the coaching staffs, where Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and Wolves assistant Pablo Prigioni hurled invectives at each other.
“There was things said by their assistant coach and I’m in the same boat our guys are in,” Bickerstaff said during his postgame news conference. “We’re going to defend each other. 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.”
Finch said that Prigioni was taking exception to one of the Pistons’ behaviors both during and before the fight.
“From my understanding, he was trying to have a conversation with the referee about one of their players who’s kind of prone to these situations,” Finch said. “And then their bench, J.B. in particular, had an issue with it, and they exchanged words.”
Stewart has a reputation for being in the middle of scuffles, and Wolves sources confirmed afterward that he is the player who raised Prigioni’s ire. Minnesota’s DiVincenzo and Reid were ejected, as were Detroit’s Holland, Stewart and Sasser. Bickerstaff and Prigioni were also ejected.
All in all, there were seven technical fouls handed out during the fracas.
The Wolves were able to grab control of the game not long after it and went on to a 123-104 win that they desperately needed while trying to get up into the sixth seed in the Western Conference. Minnesota (43-32) is currently in seventh place, half a game behind No. 6 Golden State (43-31).
“I think it was a pressure release for what the game needed or where the game was headed, not what it needed,” Finch said. “Certainly, you don’t want to say that it needed that, but that was like the only conclusion with the way the game was being played. So it didn’t matter how it was going to happen. It was just bound to happen.”
Brawl stemmed from an early build-up
There are scuffles in games, and then there are fights. This was a fight. It started earlier in the quarter with DiVincenzo and Stewart exchanging some heated trash talk.
What followed was one of the more extensive tussles we’ve seen in a long time. The biggest sign that this was more than just your average disagreement? Prigioni, a genial, easygoing personality, got into it with Bickerstaff and needed to be held back from it turning physical.
After things calmed down, it became clear that a young fan seated in the front row on the baseline was shaken up during the incident. Finch came to check on the boy, and then Alex Rodriguez, a prominent member of the Wolves ownership group, came to check on him, patting the boy on the head and making sure he was OK.
The boy remained in his seat and did not need medical attention.
“We’re a hockey family,” the boy’s father quipped to The Athletic. “We were ready to get into the fight.” — Jon Krawczynski, Timberwolves beat writer
Short-handed Pistons fall apart
After losing Holland, Stewart, Sasser and Bickerstaff, the Pistons imploded. Detroit entered the night without its franchise player in Cade Cunningham (left calf contusion) and starter Tobias Harris (right Achilles tendinopathy), and after the altercation took place, the Timberwolves outscored the Pistons 94-65. It seemed as though the scuffle sucked the life out of Detroit and injected it into the Target Center crowd.
Bickerstaff and Prigioni were heated, but Bickerstaff said the words exchanged were more emotional than menacing.
“I didn’t think it crossed the line to the escalation of anything,” Bickerstaff said. “But in that moment, I understand the refs’ position, but you just can’t say anything to people or about people and expect it to be OK.”
That Holland was in the middle of the heat comes as little surprise. He may only be 19 years old, but he has shown multiple times this season that he’s not afraid of confrontation. When Reid pointed his finger in Holland’s face, the rookie responded with the same energy, not backing down in the slightest.
Despite his frustration in the moment, Bickerstaff acknowledged things got out of hand.
“Obviously, things went too far,” Bickerstaff said. “If you go back and watch the film and see where it started, things escalated from there. What you see is guys looking out for one another, guys trying to protect one another, guys trying to have each other’s backs. … you regret, obviously, where all of it took place. That’s not something you ever want to see happening. But I thought our guys stood our ground and defended each other and had each other’s backs. Those are non-negotiables in our locker room.”
While the Pistons (42-33) weren’t able to withstand the run the Timberwolves went on during the second half, Detroit has still won five of its last seven games and remains in fifth in the Eastern Conference.
The Pistons take on the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday and the Toronto Raptors on Friday before heading back to Detroit for a matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday. — Hunter Patterson, Pistons beat writer
WHAT A WIN 👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/B0qlDHiARE
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) March 31, 2025
Timberwolves used the brawl to rally
The Wolves looked dead in the water in the first 16 minutes of the game. They were bothered by Detroit’s physical play and trailed 34-20 after one quarter.
DiVincenzo, the fiery combo guard, appeared determined to push back. He had 6 points, three rebounds and three assists in the 9:37 before being ejected, and exchanged words with Stewart a few possessions before everything jumped off. When he was in the pile-up and saw Stewart grabbing for Reid’s neck, DiVincenzo shoved Stewart back with such force that the entire pile moved.
“Anytime your brothers get into it with another team, it should always boost you up,” Anthony Edwards said.
The Pistons built the lead back up to as many as 14 points, but the Wolves started to dig deep and found their defensive intensity in the back half of the second quarter.
“I think sometimes when something like that happens, it either makes you or breaks you,” said Rudy Gobert, who had 19 points and 25 rebounds in the game. “For us, it was something that gave us a little boost of energy. All the guys that came in also did a great job stepping it up for our team.”
Julius Randle responded with force, scoring 26 points, grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out five assists. Mike Conley scored 17 points and played great defense on Pistons sharpshooter Beasley, helping to hold him to nine points after he scored 18 in the first half. And Edwards, who was 2-for-8 with five points at halftime, erupted for 20 points in the second half to help the Timberwolves pull away.
“I thought we reacted the way we should,” Conley said. “It, in a sense, woke us up out of how we’d been playing at the moment. I think it gave everybody a little bit of adrenaline. You hate to lose guys in the middle of the game like that, but they turned the game around for us, honestly, and I’m just proud of the way we responded, stayed mature about it and handled our business.”
The Wolves have seven games left, and now they will brace to see if the league will hand out any further discipline from the incident. It was difficult to tell in reviewing the video available, but there did not appear to be punches thrown by anyone in the altercation. The Wolves travel to Denver for a nationally televised game against the Nuggets on Tuesday night.
“I don’t think they should miss games for that,” Edwards said. “Maybe just some money.” — Krawczynski
(Photo: Matt Krohn / Imagn Images)
