Wolves top Pistons on fight night in Minneapolis (2025)

The Pistons showed up to Target Center on Sunday ready to literally fight. But, for the first quarter, the Timberwolves looked more ready to go to bed. Until Donte DiVincenzo decided to step into the ring.

Shortly after Isaiah Stewart got a technical foul for a push early in the second frame, Detroit rookie Ron Holland delivered a little shove to DiVincenzo after a foul was called against Holland on Naz Reid.

DiVincenzo would have no more of that. He grabbed Holland and wrestled him into the first row of seats located under the basket. And it was on.

A bevy of players got into the outskirts of the skirmish, which didn’t feature any thrown punches, but ample pushing in a skirmish that leaked into the spectators.

“Just the heat of the moment. I didn’t really see how it started with Naz, but I just saw Donte get into the middle of that, and then everybody got sent into the stands,” Wolves guard Mike Conley said. “At that point, just trying to grab guys off and get our guys out the bottom of the pile. It’s like one of those football piles where you don’t know what’s going on underneath. So you break it up as fast as we could and prevent our guys from missing games and stuff like that. It’s part of the game. It’s been a part of the game for a long time, the emotional part.”

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch called the situation —specifically, its proximity to and involvement of the spectators — “super dangerous.” Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff said there was regret with “where all of it took place.”

“That’s nothing you ever want to see happen,” Bickerstaff said.

Finch could sense the incident coming.

“(The physicality) just kept escalating and escalating, mostly from their side, to be honest with you,” he said. “I thought leading up to that, that the game was way too physical. I thought it was a little lopsided in its physicality, and I thought that it was bound to happen.”

Because Detroit was playing a chippy brand of basketball. Former Wolves guard Malik Beasley boisterously sounded off after each of his four first-quarter triples. It wasn’t sustainable for it all to continue for 48 minutes without it coming to a head.

“They’re a physical team. I know their coach well. He’s a physical, hard-minded individual, and they play that way, as well. And they’ve got the players to do it,” Conley said. “Our players don’t back down, as well. So you knew that you’ve got two teams playing at a high level. We’re playing with a lot of urgency and desperation. They play tough and physical. At some point, that thing is going to explode. The way the game was going, it just happened to be at that moment of the game.”

Bickerstaff noted his team has developed a reputation for its physicality. He said his guys “stood their group and defended each other.” Minnesota felt it did the same.

In the end, five players were ejected —DiVincenzo and Naz Reid for Minnesota and Holland, Stewart and Marcus Sasser for the Pistons. Detroit head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and Minnesota assistant Pablo Prigioni, who were jawing at one another in the wake of the incident, were also sent to the locker room.

The lingering question for Minnesota is whether anyone, specifically, DiVincenzo, will face a suspension from the NBA. The Wolves play in Denver on Tuesday.

But what mattered most for Minnesota on Sunday was that the Wolves woke up in time to rally from a 16-point deficit to down Detroit 123-104.

With the win, Minnesota leapfrogged the Clippers to move into the No. 7 spot in the Western Conference and remained on Golden State’s heels for the six seed.

Minnesota trailed at the time of the skirmish, and went down by 14 with fewer than five minutes to play in the half. But after the ejections a Detroit team that entered the night sans Tobias Harris and Cade Cunningham was then down five guys, and the Wolves won the war of attrition.

Anthony Edwards scored 20 points in the third quarter. Rudy Gobert dominated the affair with 19 points and a whopping 25 rebounds.

While the fight was the story of the night, what mattered most to Minnesota at this juncture in the season was how it responded.

“I think sometimes when something like that happens, it either makes you or breaks you,” Gobert said. “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.”