"There's no love lost."
"These teams REALLY don't like each other."
"An old-fashioned slobberknocker."
All of these cliches could be used to describe a chippy Game 3 of the Raptors-Wizards NBA playoff series.
MORE: Watch: Bucks' Thon Maker belts multiple Celtics shots with 5 emphatic first-half blocks
Hostilities started less than three minutes into the first quarter Saturday (AEDT) when the Wizards' Markieff Morris hit the Raptors' OG Anunoby with a shoulder and the rookie responded with a hard shove.
Markieff Morris shoves Raptors' OG Anunoby and things get heated between Wizards and Raptors pic.twitter.com/PyxCrJHWVj
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) April 21, 2018
Both players received a technical foul, and Anunoby was also given a common foul for pulling Morris to the floor.
Later in the first half, Raptors guard Kyle Lowry was given a flagrant foul after appearing to hit Bradley Beal on the head while going for a block. Beal got up quickly after the initial contact and angrily ran over to the referee, but nothing appeared to come from that.
Things really heated up in the third quarter.
The stakes are high. The tensions are higher. pic.twitter.com/NgL01IYAfh
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 21, 2018
When all was said and done, Beal, John Wall and Serge Ibaka all received technical fouls.
A couple questions remain after this incident:
Should Jonas Valanciunas have been given a foul for playing keep-away from Beal? What did Wall say to Ibaka in the scrum that caused the big man to react like that?
In the end, the Wizards turned the skirmish to their advantage and rattled off an 8-0 run shortly thereafter. They ended the third quarter leading by 19 points — a lead they carried until the final buzzer for a 122-103 victory.