Giants' Daniel Jones throws his weight around in skirmish with Lions at the teams' joint practice

Well, that escalated quickly.

As the Giants and Lions began the first of two days of joint practices heading into Thursday’s preseason opener at MetLife Stadium, tempers flared as hot as this heat wave on Monday. And quarterback Daniel Jones was in the midst of it.

Jones joined the fray when Giants center Greg Van Roten was pinned to the ground by a Detroit defender. He defended his teammate, using his body to free Van Roten.

That may have gained Jones some respect from his teammates, but it likely wasn’t anything that Brian Daboll wants to see in a scrimmage.

Outside linebacker Brian Burns heard those details and felt the same way as his coach.

“Daniel got jiggy with it?” Burns said. “Daniel was out there with it? Yeah, I’m going to need him to back up. Leave that to his offensive line. Let them handle that.

“But Daniel, he’s a competitor, man. He’s a fighter. So I don’t expect anything less from him. But I don’t need him in that. I don’t need him to get hit. Keep him healthy.”

It was a hot, wild day of competition. Maybe a little too much.

“A situation happens like that, you try to stand up for your guys,” Jones said. “I thought it was good competitive practice all day today and we made some plays and did some good things. There are some things we need to shore up, for sure, but good intensity and competitive spirit today.”

Seeing Jones as feisty as he was might have energized his teammates to raise their intensity level.

“I think that’s the goal every day you come out to practice, whether you’re practicing against another team or yourself, is to feel better and more confident at the end of the day,” Jones said. “I think we did that. I think we made some plays, executed well throughout the day.

“Like I said, there’s some things you want back and things we could do better, for sure. But overall, I thought we played tough, played physical and executed well.”

As for the defense, Burns said, “It was decent. It was smooth. Good work.”

He added that he wasn’t surprised by the intensity of the day. “Tempers start to flare when it’s hot outside,” Burns said. “You’re tired and you got people hitting you. So that’s just what happens.”

With the Lions having one of the best offensive lines in the league — led by tackles Penei Sewell and Taylor Decker and center Frank Ragnow — the Giants’ pass rush clearly wanted to show they were up to the challenge.

“To have success against them in this practice means a lot,” said Burns, who had three tackles for a loss Monday. “It’s a good confidence-builder for us.”

Notes & quotes: Asked if he will play Thursday night, Jones said: “I’ll be ready to go when I get my chance. I always think it’s valuable to get game reps and to feel that. My knee feels good and I feel ready to go. I’ve tested it and done everything that I need to do to make sure it’s ready to go. So I feel good about my knee.” . . . When it comes to the chemistry that Jones is developing with first-round draft pick Malik Nabers, Daboll said: “I think it’s growing every day. Again, Malik’s a rookie. Daniel’s coming back from his surgery. Those guys work hard in individual routes. Obviously, in team periods, I think each day it’s gotten better and better. There’s a lot of nuances to the passing game. We ask him [Nabers] to do a lot. Maybe it’s a couple of different routes each day to make sure that we’re getting the timing and the rhythm down. And if we need to get it again, we go back to another practice or the practice after that to make sure we’re continuing to build that chemistry.” .  .  . Lions coach and former Giants tight end Dan Campbell called Daboll “one of the smartest football minds I’ve ever been around.” The respect between the coaches is mutual. Daboll said of the dust-ups during practice: “It’s all about competition. We’ve got a lot of respect for these guys.”

By Kimberly Jones

kimberly.jones@newsday.comkimjonessports

Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.