Isaiah Stewart had another bone to pick over the weekend.
The Detroit Pistons played Saturday against the Milwaukee Bucks at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Mich. With Giannis Antetokounmpo (calf strain) and others out of the lineup, the Bucks had to get creative in an effort to stop the Eastern Conference-best Pistons and thus threw out a zone defense against them during the contest.
At halftime of the game, the Pistons big man Stewart was interviewed by FanDuel Sports Network. During his interview, Stewart fired some shade at the Bucks over their zone tactics.
“Just break it,” said Stewart of the strategy against the Bucks’ zone. “It ain’t really a hard zone. We just gotta move them around. It’s a grown man game. They out here playing zone. They don’t wanna match up against us.”
Isaiah Stewart on the Milwaukee Bucks playing zone defense
— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) December 7, 2025
“Just break it… It’s a grown man’s game, and they’re out here playing zone.”
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Stewart is correct that zone defenses are more common in college than in the NBA. In the pros, the zone is rarely used outside of gimmick and/or desperation situations (the latter of which the Bucks appeared to be in on Saturday).
In the end, the Pistons won by a final score of 124-112 with Stewart scoring 19 points on 6/8 shooting from the field. But fresh off an ejection during Detroit’s game against the Bucks earlier in the week, Stewart was happy to keep the hostilities during the rematch against the same opponent.
