Two of the NBA’s most willing combatants found each other again Wednesday night.
Isaiah Stewart and Bobby Portis got tangled up in the third quarter at Fiserv Forum, with Stewart raising a fist toward Portis after a hard foul on a shot attempt. Portis grabbed Stewart’s arm before officials and teammates separated them. Both players were hit with technicals. Stewart got tossed because it was his second of the night.
The Bucks won the game 113-109 without him.
This is the part where the league has to start asking real questions about Stewart’s pattern.
The 24-year-old Pistons big man has been involved in this kind of incident repeatedly. He was ejected for striking a player last season. The year before that, he was suspended for punching an opponent in the back of the arena before a game. Bringing the energy on the court is one thing. Putting hands on people in tunnels is a different category.
Portis is no innocent bystander here either. He has his own resume of ejections and physical incidents. He was tossed from a playoff game for shoving an opponent. He once put a Bulls teammate in the hospital with a punch in practice. Whatever provoked Stewart, Portis is exactly the kind of guy who would respond in kind.
So the matchup itself was always going to be volatile. Detroit and Milwaukee have not been kind to each other historically, and the rosters now feature multiple players with short fuses. Wednesday’s flare-up felt inevitable from the tip.
The Pistons lost more than the game when Stewart left the floor. Detroit was down 24 to a Bucks team missing Giannis Antetokounmpo, who exited in the first quarter with a calf strain. The Pistons clawed back into it without their starting center. Ausar Thompson stepped in and contributed, but the absence of a physical presence in the frontcourt mattered down the stretch.
This is the cost of Stewart’s antics. He removes himself from games at moments his team needs him. The Pistons are trying to build a competitive identity around their young core, and that core does not have the luxury of playing four-on-five for stretches because of avoidable ejections.
The frustration is that Stewart’s intensity is actually an asset when it is channeled correctly. He is a physical defender. He sets brutal screens. He brings energy that role players are supposed to bring. If he could keep the fist-pumping in his pocket, he would be one of the most valuable role players in the league.
The league office will probably look at the tape, see that Stewart did not actually throw a punch, and let the ejection serve as the punishment. That is a mistake. Stewart needs to learn that the act of clenching a fist near another player’s face has consequences beyond a technical. He keeps testing that line, and eventually he is going to step across it in a way that costs him real games.
The Bucks moving on to win the game without their MVP is a separate story, but it is one that adds to Stewart’s bill. The Bobby Portis matchup will keep happening. The Detroit-Milwaukee games will keep being chippy. Stewart has to figure out how to compete without giving away possessions and ejections every time someone gets in his face.
He is 24. There is time to grow out of this. But the pattern is starting to look less like a young player learning his limits and more like a player who does not want to.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
