Monty Williams

The Lakers won through their play-in game against the Golden State Warriors, earning seventh seed and the right to take on the second seed Suns, who are led by experienced point guard Paul.

Four-time NBA champion James has remarkably never faced 11-time NBA All-Star and high school friend Paul in the postseason.

Rondo and Green are widely known for their basketball intelligence and James identified Paul among those lofty standards.

"It's going to be comparable to playing against Rondo in a series, playing against Draymond in a series," James said during a video conference call on Friday.

"You have those out-of-this-world IQ type guys and fierce competitors, at the same time so it's the same thing.

"Every time I faced Rondo in the past, I knew I had to be not only on my A-game as far as my game, but also my mind as well and that's the same with Draymond, every time you go against those Warriors teams.

"I've had experiences with those two guys, so that will definitely help me in matching up with CP [Paul] because I know the competitor and I know the IQ of the basketball player that he is."

The Lakers may be the seventh seed but head into their series with the Suns as the bookmakers favourites, having been 2019-20 champions.

The Suns surprised a lot of people by ending their long playoffs wait and finishing as high as second in the Western Conference.

Suns coach Monty Williams insisted that being considered underdogs did not faze his side.

"We all hear it," Williams said on Friday. "Ultimately you got to get out there and compete for 48 minutes, and that's what we plan to do.

"Did anybody think we were going to win 51 games this year? In a shortened season? Don't think so. So why would we listen to those people now?"

On facing the reigning champions first up, he added: "Our guys aren't bitter. We're looking forward to competing against the Lakers.

"We're not upset or feel like anybody's done something to our Cheerios. We have to go play the Lakers."

Detroit gave Williams a six-year, $78.5million contract last June after he was fired by the Phoenix Suns following the 2022-23 season.

At the time, the deal was the richest ever for an NBA head coach.

Detroit, though, finished with the worst record in franchise history and set an NBA single-season record along the way when it lost 28 straight games after opening 2-1.

It’s been an eventful off-season for the Pistons, who hired New Orleans Pelicans general manager Trajan Langdon as president of basketball operations and fired general manager Troy Weaver.

Detroit also had no luck in the NBA Draft lottery after being tied with the Washington Wizards for the best odds to secure the No. 1 overall pick at 14 per cent.

The Atlanta Hawks won the lottery despite having just a three per cent chance to win, and the Pistons fell back to the No. 5 selection.

Devin Booker's 35-point haul helped the Phoenix Suns beat the Los Angeles Clippers 112-95, with Paul bringing up the landmark against his former team by teeing up Deandre Ayton to dunk.

In doing so, Paul joined John Stockton and Jason Kidd in an exclusive club of players with 11,000 NBA assists, also becoming the first man to amass that many assists as well as 20,000 points in NBA history.

Speaking after the Suns' win, Paul credited the quality of his teammates and said he was unaware of his achievement until after the game. 

"I've been fortunate to play for a while now with a lot of great shooters, great players in general,'' he said. "I'm privileged.

"There's been a lot of firsts here at the Staples Center, well, Crypto Arena. I honestly didn't have a clue until I checked out of the game."

Suns coach Monty Williams added: "It's amazing. I look at him and I'm like, 'holy smokes, I get to coach Chris Paul'.''

Paul, who also has the most assists for the Clippers in the franchise's history, finished with seven points, 11 assists and eight rebounds.

The 12-time NBA All-Star has some way to go to top the league's assist charts, however, with his tally of 11,009 some way short of Stockton's record of 15,806.

The Suns completed an 18th consecutive victory, downing the lowly Pistons 114-103 to improve to 19-3 record to top the Western Conference. Phoenix's 18 straight wins broke their previous franchise-best mark from the 2006-07 season of 17.

Paul, who had 12 points and 12 assists against the Pistons, has played in many successful sides before but found unique joy in the Suns' record-breaking streak, even if it was not at the front of his mind.

"It's cool. I really wasn’t thinking about it," Paul said during the post-game news conference. "Obviously it's a nice piece of history for the team but for us it's always about that feeling of playing the game the right way.

"We say this every night, a win is a win, but we feel like we could’ve played better."

He added: "It's exciting. Some were so long ago so you forget. To be on this journey with young guys and having rookies on the team, it's cool. It's also cool that guys aren’t stressing about it either. it just happened."

The Suns were without All-Star guard Devin Booker for the first time this season due to a hamstring injury but had plenty of contributions.

Cameron Johnson and Cameron Payne both scored 19 points off the bench, while JaVale McGee added 10 points from 15 minutes too.

"We were hooping. It was like most nights," Paul said when asked about the side covering Booker.

"I aint surprised. I don’t expect anything less. It's how our team is. Every night it's someone else stepping up and we expect that."

Suns head coach Monty Williams was awarded Western Conference coach of the month prior to the game after an unbeaten November, with Paul offering up his praise.

"He's a big reason why I wanted to come play here, because of who he is as a person and as a coach, the principles and the accountability we have here," Paul said.

Williams narrowly missed out on 2020-21 award, with the New York Knicks' Tom Thibodeau edging the final tally by 11 votes, but he was the clear choice this season after leading the Suns to a league-best 64-18 record.

As well as winning eight more games than any other team, it also set a new franchise record for wins in a season, and legitimised last year's run to the NBA Finals as more than a fluke.

The news was first broken by Suns star Devin Booker, who tweeted: "Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams has been voted the NBA's COY, book tells sources. A formal announcement is expected later today."

Williams, a former first-round pick in his own right, spent 10 years in the league as a player, and became the youngest head coach in the NBA in 2010 when he earned the head coaching role of the New Orleans Hornets at 38 years old.

After his departure from New Orleans and five years as an assistant, Williams was hired by the Suns in 2019, guiding his team to a memorable 8-0 run in the 'bubble' during his first season.

He has followed that season with two consecutive National Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year awards, and his first official NBA Coach of the Year.

The Suns are a combined 115-39 over the past two regular seasons.

The Pistons went down 119-111 to the short-handed Utah Jazz on Thursday.

That means Detroit are just one defeat away from matching the single-season record for consecutive losses, which is shared by the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers, while the latter hold the outright record for successive defeats, having lost 28 straight games across the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.

Cunningham, though, believes the Pistons still have the quality to turn matters around.

"We're not 2-26 bad, no way are we that bad," said Cunningham, who finished with a double-double of 28 points and 10 assists.

"I think we can turn this around. We can play a much better brand of basketball.

"We had a chance to win it down the stretch, and we just weren't solid enough.

"This is history no one wants to be a part of."

While Cunningham was upbeat ahead of Saturday's meeting with the Brooklyn Nets, coach Monty Williams had to hold his tongue.

"I want to be careful with my words, because this one hurts more than most of them," Williams said.

"A team that played last night got [50] points off turnovers and rebounds. It is unbelievably hard to understand how we can get outworked in those categories."

Jazz coach Will Hardy, meanwhile, hailed a big win for his team, who were without four of their top seven scorers.

Hardy said: "That's a really, really good team win for us. That's a hard game to play, second night of a back-to-back on the road with a bunch of guys out." 

The exact terms of the deal were not made public, but the extension adds multiple years onto Williams’ original deal, which had two seasons remaining. 

Williams has been at the helm during one of the best stretches in franchise history, guiding the Suns to a 2021 NBA Finals appearance and a franchise-best 64 wins last season. 

Williams has gone 149-78 (.656 win percentage) in three seasons with Phoenix and was named the 2021-22 NBA Coach of the Year. 

The Suns earned the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs last season and were considered favourites to return to a second straight Finals but were beaten in seven games by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round. 

Second-seeded Suns beat the Denver Nuggets 125-118 on Sunday to seal a 4-0 series win in the Western Conference semi-finals, with newly crowned MVP Nikola Jokic ejected for a flagrant 2 foul in the third quarter.

Vital for the Suns were the contributions of Paul and Devin Booker, who accounted for 71 of their total points – the former top-scoring with 37.

Williams wrapped Paul in a warm hug at the end, the two sharing a bond from their days working together at the New Orleans Pelicans.

Paul was also there for Williams when the coach lost his wife in 2016, and for the latter, the current successes mean that much more when shared with someone so important.

"The emotions are happy, grateful, tired, relieved," Williams said. "It's one of those moments for me that quite frankly I never thought I'd have a chance to experience. For me, I have a level of gratitude I can't even explain."

He added: "Chris has meant so much to my career, he's meant so much to my life. The darkest moment of my life Chris was right there and one of the highlights of my career, he's right there.

"That's where it is right now. I'm not really good at waxing eloquent about how I feel other than just telling you I just feel grateful for this opportunity and to be on this team and in this moment and have a chance to move forward."

The feeling was mutual for Paul, who was similarly delighted to be on such a road with Williams given their close bond.

"Monty has been through things in his life that a lot of people don't necessarily come back from," Paul said.

"Basketball aside, he means so much to me and my family. So, to be on this journey with him and to see it paying off is nice.

"We're a lot alike. We stay locked in. I don't feel good until the buzzer sounds. Monty's the same way. When the series is over, and the game is over, it's nice to share those moments."

The Suns trailed by 24 points at one stage at Footprint Center, before surging back to win 118-114, with Booker's incessant shooting a key feature.

The 26-year-old scored 58 points, making 21 of 35 field goal attempts, six of 12 from beyond the arc and 10 of 15 from the foul line.

Booker had not topped 20 points in his previous five games but was determined to be the difference against New Orleans.

"I was just making shots, man," he said after the win. "I've been in a bit of a slump and just gotta keep shooting. That's what I live by. I was put in the right situations to make the right plays.

"I usually just want to make the right play every time, but once I get it going a little bit, you know shooting over a hand, it is the right play."

At one point, Booker scored 25 consecutive points for Phoenix to bring the deficit down to just one midway through the fourth quarter.

Monty Williams was understandably impressed with Booker, claiming he as his coach was "the only person that could've stopped him tonight... by taking him out the game".

Chris Paul, who himself scored 18 along with eight assists and five rebounds, praised Booker for rising to the challenge as the Pelicans sought to slow him.

"I don't take it for granted," Paul said. "I know how hard it is. Having games similar to that, not 58, but when you've just got it going like that and you just want the ball and you know every time you're going to make it a play.

"So, I appreciate it, because I know how hard it is to consistently do that when everybody on the court knows you're going to get the ball."

Vogel, who guided the Los Angeles Lakers to an NBA title during the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season, takes over a talent-laden Suns team that has compiled a 160-76 record over the last three regular seasons - the highest winning percentage in the league over that period - but still seeks the first championship of the franchise's 55-year existence.

The 49-year-old replaces Monty Williams, who was fired shortly after the Suns were ousted by the Denver Nuggets in six games in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.

Williams was hired as the Detroit Pistons' head coach earlier this week. The 2021-22 NBA Coach of the Year went 194-115 over four seasons in Phoenix and led the Suns to the 2021 NBA Finals.

Vogel owns a 431-389 overall record over 11 seasons with three different teams along with a career 49-39 playoff record. His greatest success came during his first season in Los Angeles, where a Lakers team led by superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis went 52-19 before winning four playoff series in the Orlando bubble to earn the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

The Lakers failed to follow up on that success, however, losing to the Suns in the first round the following season. Vogel was then fired after the 2021-22 campaign in which Los Angeles went a disappointing 33-49 and missed the playoffs. 

Regarded as a defensive specialist, Vogel previously directed the Indiana Pacers to five playoff appearances - including two trips to the Eastern Conference finals - over a six-year stretch from 2010-16. He also served as the Orlando Magic's head coach from 2016-18.

Vogel will again be taking over a team with two bona fide stars in Phoenix with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker locked into long-term deals, though the Suns do have offseason decisions to make on two other key players. Veteran point guard Chris Paul turned 38 in May and has a partially guaranteed contract for next season, while center Deandre Ayton struggled in the playoff series against the Nuggets and sat out Denver's clinching victory with a rib injury. 

After scoring 31 points in the first half of Tuesday's game against the New Orleans Pelicans, giving the Suns a 61-56 lead, Booker was held scoreless in the third quarter before going down injured.

The three-time All-Star, who has battled injury problems previously, left the floor and was unable to return.

"We'll have more information tomorrow," Williams told reporters. "We've played without Chris [Paul] and Book before. If we have to play without Book, next man up. We've done that all year long."

The Suns were 8-6 without Booker this year, 11-6 without Chris Paul and 3-3 when both were absent.

Paul continued on Tuesday to finish with 17 points and 14 assists but acknowledged the blow of Booker's injury.

"It is what it is, it's part of the game," he said. "He was killing, he was having a big-time game."

In Booker's absence, the Suns sensationally lost 125-114 as New Orleans levelled the first-round series at 1-1.

It was a historic win for the Pelicans, who became the first team in NBA history to beat 60-win opponents in the playoffs after themselves finishing the regular season at least 10 games under .500.

Brandon Ingram was the star of the show, with 37 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists.

"This was one of his best [games] and it was on the big stage," Pelicans coach Willie Green said of Ingram. "I'm proud of that young man. He works his tail off."

Ingram added: "Throughout this year I had confidence that we would be here.

"I didn't know what it would look like, but we continued to get better every single day with Willie being positive every single day and helping guys and teaching guys every single day."

The 36-year-old sustained the injury in Wednesday's 124-121 win over the Houston Rockets yet played two minutes for Team LeBron in Sunday's All-Star Game.

Paul has been a key part of the ladder-leading Suns who have a 48-10 record, averaging 14.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and an NBA-best 10.7 assists.

The NBA regular season ends on Sunday April 10, meaning Paul may be out until the playoffs commence, with the Suns well placed for a high seeding.

"We've dealt with a lot already this year," Suns head coach Monty Williams, who led Team LeBron on Sunday, told reporters after the game.

"We've lost multiple guys due to injury this year, and we've had things outside of basketball invade, so to think you're going to go through an NBA season and not have adversity, it's silly.

"You hate it, but you're prepared for it. This is different, because it's Chris. But with that in mind, it's also an opportunity to strengthen our team and give other guys confidence in certain areas, and when he does come back, I think we'll be that much better."

He added: "We're just gonna take it day by day, and see how he heals up as we go forward."

The Pistons suffered another heavy loss at Little Caesars Arena as the Washington Wizards claimed a 126-107 win, Kyle Kuzma leading the way with 32 points and 12 rebounds.

While Washington ended their own nine-game losing streak, Detroit now have the worst record in the league after slipping to 2-15, losing three of their last four games by at least 19 points.

In a post-game media appearance lasting just one minute, Williams accused his team of failing to compete while acknowledging he is ultimately responsible for turning things around.

"That wasn't fight on the floor. That wasn't Pistons basketball by any stretch of the imagination," Williams said. 

"That's what this is, we have to have people that honour the organisation and the jersey by competing at a high level every night. I'm not talking about execution, just competing. That wasn't it, and that's on me."

Asked what needs to improve as the Pistons prepare to face LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, Williams added: "It's just a level of growing up on this team, maturity, understanding what game-plan discipline is. All the stuff we talk about all the time. It's enough talking."

Guard Cade Cunningham echoed his coach's thoughts, saying the team needed to improve physically. 

"We all want to win really bad," Cunningham said. "Everybody's doing it out of the spirit of that; wanting to win, wanting to do what's best for the team.

"I think we need more aggressive mess-ups. Where we're struggling right now is slip-ups where we're not physical enough or not aggressive enough. That's what we need to lean towards instead of trying not to press.

"We play great stretches, and then we've had crazy bad stretches where we dig ourselves in too deep of a hole. 

"That's it right there, it's just holding each other accountable and when we do feel it start to slip, having the mental stamina to stay together, stay connected."

Williams has led a remarkable turnaround this season, with the Suns having a 34-39 record last year that was boosted significantly by an eight-game winning run in the seeding games in the 'bubble'.

However, Phoenix is 36-14 in the 2020-21 campaign and, following a 117-113 overtime defeat of the Jazz, they are breathing down Utah's necks.

"We just don't focus on any of that stuff," Williams said.

"I hear it, and I hope we do, but our goal has always been to win every game, improve every month - I've said that since I've been here. This team has to go through these types of experiences to win big.

"Being number one in the West would be a huge accomplishment for us, but it's just not our focus.

"We just want to win every game we can. If it means we're number one in the West, then great."

The Suns have not played in the postseason since 2009-10, but this game served as playoff preparation.

"We've always said we want to approach every game the same way - that way we don't have to change when we get where we want to go - but the intensity, the physicality, the officiating certainly felt like a playoff game," Williams said. "And going into overtime, it felt just like that."

Chris Paul added: "We needed a game like that, where guys had to play heavy minutes, the intensity of it, the crowd was great, just that energy. We haven't played too many games like that."

Veteran Paul played 43 minutes and contributed 29 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter and five in overtime.

He now ranks fifth in the league for clutch points (115), and Williams said: "Down the stretch, you might not find anybody better than Chris Paul."

The coach also praised the Suns' work in disrupting Utah's shooting from three-point range, where they were 11-for-44, down on a season average of 39.2 per cent.

And Deandre Ayton was singled out after finishing with 12 rebounds, seven of which came on the offensive end.

The Jazz, led by Defensive Player of the Year favourite Rudy Gobert, allowed a season-high 61 rebounds, while only three times have opponents managed more than 16 offensive boards against them.

"We put [Ayton] in a lot of tough positions. Not many guys his size have to do as much as he does," Williams said. "The only other guy, maybe, is Gobert, and he's Defensive Player of the Year.

"We put DA in coverages where he's got to rim-protect but we also switch out with him at times where he's got to guard smaller guys. When they make shots, it's usually a tough shot."

It was the first time in Ayton's career he reached double figures for rebounds against Gobert and the Jazz.

"Everybody's got a job on this team, man," Ayton said, adding: "Competing with Gobert, that's the Defensive Player of our league.

"Him being a presence on both ends of the floor, you're going to have to bring your 'A-game'. He's a strong, physical dude, he knows the game, and I learned a lot, too."

The Pistons opened a 21-point lead in the first half as they went in search of a first win since October 28, but Jayson Tatum had 31 points for Boston as they turned things around to lead in the fourth quarter.

Bojan Bogdanovic made a putback with 4.6 seconds left to force overtime, but it was not to be for Detroit as Derrick White scored 10 of his 23 points in the extra period, helping the Celtics to a 128-122 success. 

Detroit have now lost their last 28 games, matching the Philadelphia 76ers' record losing run across the end of the 2014-15 season and the start of 2015-16.

They could take that unwanted record outright when they face the Toronto Raptors next time out, but an improved showing against the league's best side offered Williams encouragement.

"I'm unbelievably proud of the group, the way they bring it," Williams said after seeing his team slip to 2-29.

"They've heard all the stuff about our team and they just keep bringing it. I know it's going to pay off.

"As bad as they hurt right now, I hurt for them. But I told them; if we bring that kind of toughness and execution — minus the turnovers — we're not just going to win one game. 

"We're going to put something together."

Guard Cade Cunningham finished with 31 points, 22 of which came in the first half, though he missed a potential game-winning three-pointer with seven seconds remaining in regulation.

Like his coach, Cunningham said Detroit were not interested in winning purely to stop the rot, but as a platform for a lasting improvement.

"I'm not interested in just winning one more game this year to stop this, you know what I mean? That would be soft in my opinion," Cunningham said.

"Our goals are a lot higher than that. We have what it takes to win a game, that's nothing. 

"But to put games together, to find our system, find what's clicking and allow us to sustain winning…. That's all we're looking for.

"We're on the same level as all these teams we're playing against. There's no team that I've ever come across in the NBA where I felt like I was going into a slaughterhouse. I’ve never felt like that in my life, going into a basketball game.

"Every game, we should be able to fight teams and impose our will on them. We did that early on. 

"We let go of the rope a little bit in the third quarter. But there's a lot of growth, something we can learn from and definitely take to the next game."

Last year's number one draft pick finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists at Little Caesars Arena as the Spurs ended a five-game losing streak with a 130-108 win over their struggling opponents.

In doing so, Wembanyama – at the age of 20 years and six days – became the youngest player in NBA history to record a triple-double with no turnovers since turnovers were first tracked in 1977-78, surpassing Andre Iguodala, who did so aged 21 years and 54 days in 2005.

Wembanyama's achievement was made all the more impressive by the fact he played just 21 minutes and two seconds overall, the second-fewest minutes needed for a triple-double in the shot-clock era (since 1954-55).

The Frenchman was under a minute away from the outright record, with Russell Westbrook having recorded a triple-double in 20 minutes and 17 seconds for the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2014, against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Speaking after the win, Wembanyama said of his landmark performance: "Doing it in a win is everything, of course. I didn't know it was the second-fastest in NBA history. 

"It matters to me. I'm not the type to talk for nothing. This is the kind of statement we want to make as a team, and this is the type of statement I want to make as a player."

The Pistons were one of the teams who had hoped to recruit Wembanyama, with Detroit having failed to secure the first overall draft pick despite finishing with the league's worst record last year.

Asked about Detroit's previous interest in him, Wembanyama said: "It's weird to imagine a different future and what could have been."

Detroit also have the worst record in the NBA this season, sitting at 3-35 after losing six straight games. Their current losing run started after a win over the Toronto Raptors in late December, which itself halted a joint-record 28-game losing streak.

Pistons coach Monty Williams was unimpressed after a poor first quarter set the tone for another disappointing outing, saying: "The focus and discipline wasn't there.

"There's nobody to look at other than me, not having guys ready to play."

At 19 years and 38 days old, the first overall draft pick became the youngest player in NBA history to post a 20-20 game, managing 21 points and 20 assists at home to the Chicago Bulls on Friday.

However, that performance was not enough to prevent a 121-112 defeat as the Bulls rallied after the interval, with Patrick Williams, Demar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic and Coby White all managing 20 points or more for Chicago.

San Antonio has now tied their all-time record losing streak of 16 games, while their 3-18 record is the worst they have ever managed through 21 games of a season.

Wembanyama – whose 20-20 game came when he was four days younger than previous record holder Dwight Howard – says it is still a case of trial and error after he starred from the center position against the Bulls.

"Experimenting in different areas of the game is always something important and interesting to me," Wembanyama said. 

"Every game is different, but we're going to see and try until we find a good recipe.

"When our opponents are down at half, of course they're going to try and have a reaction. We've got to expect that every time, because our first half was pretty solid, especially defensively. 

"There are ups and downs during the game, but we've got to get our downs less and less."

San Antonio's losing steak still stands three games short of that being endured by the Detroit Pistons, who are 2-20 after going down by a 123-91 scoreline against the Orlando Magic, their 19th straight loss.

Franz Wagner scored 27 points and Paolo Banchero added 24 for Orlando, with the Pistons now enduring the longest single-season losing streak in their franchise history and their second-longest overall.

Detroit previously lost 21 in a row across the end of the 1979-80 season and the start of 1980-81.

Though Pistons coach Monty Williams acknowledged the 15-7 Magic are a tough nut to crack defensively, he wasn't happy with his team's offensive efforts.

"They're a good defensive team but we missed a lot of open shots," Williams said after the defeat. 

"They take away the paint, force you to play outside. We generated only 30 threes and just didn't hit a good percentage. We just had a hard time putting the ball in the basket tonight."

Detroit matched the longest losing run in NBA history on Thursday, when they blew a 21-point lead against the Boston Celtics to equal the Philadelphia 76ers' record of 28 straight losses covering the end of 2014-15 and the start of 2015-16.

The Pistons – who were on the worst single-season losing streak in league history – could have taken that unwanted record outright when they welcomed Toronto to Little Caesars Arena, but Cade Cunningham starred as they avoided doing so.

The third-year guard had 30 points and 12 assists as the Pistons clinched victory over their short-handed opponents by going 11 for 12 from the free throw line in the final minute.

Asked about the mood in the Detroit camp after the team's first win since October 28, Williams said: "I've been a ton of locker rooms my whole life, and that's a first for me, to have that. 

"It wasn't relief, it was like: 'Thank God'. Guys were screaming. I was almost in tears. I'm just so happy for our guys. I'm happy for everybody.

"Sometimes it just takes a win like that to get things started. I just have so much respect for our team."

Cunningham, who hit back-to-back three-pointers in a crucial fourth-quarter stretch to pull Detroit clear, added: "I feel amazing.

"We just kept battling. It's been a long stretch, all these losses, but I'm just happy to be part of a group of guys who don't quit."

Pascal Siakam scored 35 points and Dennis Schroder added 28 for the 12-20 Raptors, who traded O.G. Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn to the New York Knicks earlier on Saturday and were unable to field new arrivals RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley.

They sit 12th in the Eastern Conference after losing five of their last six games, while the last-place Pistons are at 3-29 ahead of a four-game road stretch starting against the Houston Rockets on Monday.

Pistons center Stewart was arrested after he punched Phoenix's Drew Eubanks before Wednesday's meeting between the Suns and Detroit.

Stewart, who was already out of the game due to an ankle injury, was issued with a citation and released, reported ESPN, citing Phoenix police.

Eubanks, meanwhile, helped the Suns win 116-100. The Phoenix center said the altercation with Stewart took place as he was coming into the arena, explaining an argument sparked before security intervened.

In a statement, the Suns said: "The attack on Drew Eubanks was unprovoked, and acts of violence such as this are unacceptable.

"We unequivocally support Drew, and will continue to work with local law enforcement and the NBA."

Williams, who was sacked by the Suns last season, questioned his former team, however.

"The thing is to get all of the information. The NBA will do an investigation," Williams said.

"For me to come here and make a statement would be a bit irresponsible. I know the Suns said it was unprovoked; I think that is irresponsible for sure. You really don't know.

"That did not need to happen. There is a time for the information to be gathered, and then you can make a statement."

A Pistons statement added: "We are in the process of gathering information about what happened and what provoked it, and responding to the NBA and local authorities."

Suns talisman Kevin Durant, who finished with 25 points, said: "Keep the game first. There's a lot of noise. 

"It's unfortunate what happened before the game, it's supposed to be a brotherhood. But I also understand, dudes get into stuff. We try to avoid that in this league, hopefully we can move on from it. We all support Drew."