Devin Booker ejection, Eubanks-Stewart incident: Takeaways from Suns win vs. Pistons

This was supposed to be a special return game for Monty Williams on Wednesday, with a tribute video and Phoenix Suns' fans appreciating his successful run coaching the team.

Then all hell broke loose.

Pistons' big Isaiah Stewart hit Suns' big Drew Eubanks after the two exchanged words heading to arena locker rooms before the game. He was arrested by Phoenix police for assault, issued a citation and released.

Then the game started and wasn’t six minutes deep before Devin Booker drew two technical fouls and an ejection.

The final result shouldn’t come as a surprise, though – Suns 116, Pistons 100.

Phoenix went on a dominant 26-2 run to break open a game it led by as many as 35 points in the second of back-to-back games before a sellout crowd of 17,071 at Footprint Center.

Kevin Durant scored 25 points to lead the Suns while Simone Fontecchio led Detroit with 18.

Phoenix was without Bradley Beal, who sat with a left hamstring injury he suffered in the first quarter of Tuesday’s win over Sacramento.

Here are several takeaways from Wednesday's game, as the Suns (33-22) enter the NBA All-Star break 5-1 in their last six games. The Pistons (8-46) continue to have the NBA’s worst record.

Devin Booker ejection reaction: Suns, NBA fans want ticket, bet refunds, slam officiating

Royce O’Neale continues to impress

Figures he’d make a positive impact based on how he’s blended on previous successful teams in Utah and Brooklyn. His basketball resume is known – versatile, defends, hits 3s.

O’Neale has delivered that and more in his first three games with the Suns. He followed up scoring eight of his nine points in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s victory with nine points (3-of-6 from 3), seven rebounds and three assists Wednesday night.

He has a plus-37 in 24 minutes of play. Freaking insane.

It’s been a seamless transition so far. O’Neale fills several gaps for the Suns, which leads to the following question: Who will O’Neale bump out of the rotation?

Right now, Suns' coach Frank Vogel has added him to it, but it’s hard to figure a rotation out in a game without Beal and Booker starting his NBA All-Star break early with the ejection. When everyone is healthy, that’s when the rotation will become clearer, but one thing is certain -- O’Neale already is a big part of the Suns.

Booker ejection, relationship with refs

It’s no secret Booker likes to chat with the officials and that’s putting it mildly, but he didn’t appear to do anything demonstrative towards them before getting tossed.

Booker was actually heading to the bench when J.T. Orr tossed him. While Durant said Booker was talking to him when receiving a tech and Vogel calls the ejection "total BS," Crew Chief Karl Lane said in a pool report after the game Booker received the first tech for continuing to complain after being warned and drew the second one for making "disparaging remarks" at a game official.

Here’s the deal.

There was a time Booker felt he wasn’t getting the respect from the officials largely based on not getting to the free throw line at a more frequent rate. This season, he’s attempting 7.1 free throws a game.

That’s close to his career high of 7.3 from the 2019-20 season. He’s 10^th in the league in free throw attempts, but Booker consistently goes at referees, free throws or not.

Now, is he the only one bending referee ears? No, but Pistons coach Monty Williams made a point before the game about how he watches Booker play on television and thinks, uh oh, here we go.

Brings back memories.

“I watch him lose it every once in a while,” a smiling Williams said. “He doesn’t have me over there to tell him to cut it out.”

While this was all in fun, Vogel is far more willing to have spirited verbal exchanges with the referees more than Williams. He too received a technical Wednesday night arguing Booker's ejection.

Booker is one of the game’s best players. Those guys tend to get more leeway, but maybe the referees wanted to make a point with him to bring it down a notch.

Don’t think that’s going to stop Booker from having convos with the referees.

Eubanks, Stewart situation

The NBA will review it.

The Suns and Pistons both released statements saying they will cooperate with the league and local authorities, but the fact that Eubanks and Stewart got into it before the game is crazy.

Didn’t get Stewart’s side of the story, but Eubanks talked before the game and said Stewart sucker punched him after the two exchanged words. He called it a “soft” punch and he played in the game.

Stewart has a reputation for being an aggressor. He got into it with LeBron James. He got into it with Patrick Beverley.

The situation created an environment Durant feels led to the referees wanting to take control of the game and may have factored in Booker receiving those early technical fouls.

The NBA will make a determination. Suspensions are sure to follow, but Stewart hasn’t told his side of the story, at least not to the media. Williams said he spoke to Stewart and thought the Suns were "irresponsible" for using the word "unprovoked" in their official statement on the incident.

Suns trending upward with wins, but concerns remain

Phoenix is 14-4 in its last two games with the four defeats all coming on the road. The Suns lost one of those by two to Indiana and Golden State handed them their last loss by a point on Stephen Curry's 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds left.

Durant said the team is more unified and team owner Mat Ishbia is "really happy" where the Suns are, and they're only three games out of the fourth spot behind defending NBA champion Denver, but Phoenix is far from a finished product.

Take Wednesday's game. Phoenix committed 24 turnovers that led to 28 Detroit points. Granted Booker was ejected early, Beal didn't play and this was the second of a back-to-back for Phoenix, but Durant had five turnovers, Jusuf Nurkic wound up with four and Eric Gordon, who started for Beal, committed three.

This was also the second of a back-to-back for Detroit in concluding a five-game road trip that began Feb. 7 at Sacramento. Had the Pistons took care of the ball (19 turnovers Phoenix converted into 24 points and shot it a little better (34.8% field goals, 10-of 37 from 3) this is a more interesting game outside of the referees giving their whistles a major workout all night.

The Suns are 27th in the NBA in turnovers. This may very well prove to be their downfall.

Phoenix allowed 50 paint points against Detroit after yielding a ridiculous 72 Tuesday versus Sacramento. The Suns are 18th in the NBA in paint points allowed. They are trying to make a more conscious effort to defend the interior, but want to use multiple small-ball lineups. That strategy is going to lead to giving up more paint points unless they guard the ball better.

Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Booker ejection, Eubanks-Stewart incident, takeaways from Suns win