SAN FRANCISCO – Not even two minutes into their game Tuesday night, the Warriors and Timberwolves got heated, and it resulted in an ejection for three players: Wolves forward Jaden McDaniels and the Warriors’ Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

The fracas started when Thompson and McDaniels got into a scuffle near midcourt with 10 minutes, 17 seconds remaining in the first quarter. The two got to shoving and grabbing jerseys, and players made their way over to break it up.

Rudy Gobert came over to pull Thompson away from McDaniels, but when he did that, Green put Gobert in a choke hold and dragged him toward the Warriors bench as multiple Wolves players such as Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards and even Warriors coach Steve Kerr tried to get him off Gobert.

The incident resulted in technical fouls and ejections for McDaniels and Thompson and a flagrant-foul penalty and ejection for Green.

Green and Gobert have a bit of a history. When Green punched former teammate Jordan Poole during a practice before last season, Gobert tweeted “Insecurity is always loud.” When Gobert took a swing at Kyle Anderson in the final regular-season game for the Wolves last season, Green fired back with the same tweet. Green appeared as if he were using the altercation Tuesday to take out some long-simmering frustration on Gobert.

That left the Warriors without the three cornerstones to their four championships on Tuesday night with Stephen Curry already out because of a right knee injury.

The Warriors did not show replays of the incident in the arena and the crowd turned Gobert into an instant villain. Afterward, the Wolves looked out of sorts for much of the first half. They committed 10 turnovers and their No. 1-rated defense allowed players such as Brandin Podziemski and Dario Saric to score.

Podziemski scored 12 points in the first half, while Saric added 11. Golden State led 59-54 at halftime.