NBA referee Tony Brothers had to be restrained after confronting Timberwolves’ Chris Finch

Friday’s Game 3 between the San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Timberwolves was an physical battle, and emotions ran high — including from the designated mediator in chief, Tony Brothers.

With just over five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the veteran NBA official got into an argument with Timberwolves coach Chris Finch that nearly escalated into an altercation before Brothers was held back by Wolves staffers.

With the Timberwolves trailing by two points, Finch tried to call a timeout and grew incensed when Brothers did not immediately grant it to him. As Finch’s visible frustration grew, Brothers retaliated with equal venom. During the timeout, the two continued a spirited conversation and had to be separated. Brothers, in his 32nd NBA season officiating, could even be seen stepping aggressively toward Finch before being restrained.

“Pretty unprofessional, huh,” Finch said in his postgame news conference while laughing.

“Yeah, I wanted a timeout,” Finch continued. “I had called it three seconds earlier, and I wanted the timeout, and I said I want my three seconds back. Because he clearly heard me. He flipped my way, ignored me, went on with the play, and almost caused us a turnover. And then, he lost it. Then, I asked him where we were taking the ball in, and he was screaming at me for that.”

Brothers has refereed 1,804 regular-season games and 216 playoff games in his 32-year career, including 19 NBA Finals games. He was voted the best referee by players in The Athletic’s 2023 anonymous player poll, receiving 28.8 percent of the votes.

“He always talks s— to us,” one player said then. “He interacts with us instead of taking everything personally. He’d be like, `Sit your ass down, you know you fouled him.’”

Prime analyst Blake Griffin sharply criticized Brothers’ conduct.

“I’ve never seen an official go at a coach like that,” Griffin said on Prime’s “NBA Nightcap.” “And then to go at it again? To be honest, I thought Tony was out of line.”

The Spurs pulled away for a 115-108 victory to take a 2-1 series lead in the Western Conference semifinals. At the point of the incident, Minnesota trailed 102-100. Over the final five minutes, San Antonio closed the game on a 13-8 run.

“It’s competition at the highest level,” Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards said. “We want to win. Finchy want to win. Tony Brothers is Tony Brothers. We all love him, so it’s all good.”

— Jon Krawczysnki contributed to this story