SAN FRANCISCO – Tuesday's 104-101 Timberwolves win over the Warriors took all of 1 minute, 43 seconds to become anything but a normal regular-season game.
That was the time Warriors guard Klay Thompson and Wolves forward Jaden McDaniels began grabbing each other's jerseys and shoving each other near midcourt.
Warriors forward Draymond Green, who has had a prickly relationship with Wolves center Rudy Gobert, then seized on the opportunity to put Gobert in a chokehold and dragged him toward the Warriors bench after Gobert tried to pull Thompson away from McDaniels.
McDaniels, Green and Thompson were all ejected and what began as a potential easy Wolves victory because of Stephen Curry's absence to a sore right knee turned into one of the most emotionally taxing games of their young season.