Speaking to reporters following Friday’s loss to San Antonio, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch blasted crew chief Tony Brothers for confronting him during a fourth quarter stoppage in play, according to Chris Hine of The Star-Tribune (subscription required). The disagreement began when Finch tried to call a time out, but Brothers didn’t acknowledge him right away.

“Pretty unprofessional, huh?” Finch said. “I wanted the time out. I had called it three seconds earlier, and I wanted the timeout. I said. ‘I want my three seconds back.’ Because he clearly heard me. He looked my way, ignored me, went on with the play, and then gave me it. It almost cost us the turnover.”

Brothers responded by walking toward Minnesota’s huddle with a heated retort for Finch, adds Anthony Slater of ESPN. Naz Reid stepped in to calm things down, but the argument didn’t end there.

Before the time out ended, Finch approached Brothers to ask where the ball would be inbounded and claimed that Brothers “lost it” in response. Bones Hyland and assistant coach Pablo Prigioni intercepted Brothers again before the argument could escalate any further, and eventually tempers cooled (Twitter video link from Bleacher Report).

Wolves star Anthony Edwards, who was standing next to his coach during the final stages of the exchange, attributed it to the intensity of playoff basketball.

“Competition at the highest level,” he said. “We wanna win. Finchy wanna win. Tony Brothers is Tony Brothers. We all love him.”

There’s no word from the league office yet on whether Finch will be fined for his remarks. Any disciplinary action will likely be announced before Game 4 Sunday evening.

As Slater notes, it’s the second straight night that featured harsh criticism of an official. Lakers coach JJ Redick expressed displeasure with how the game was called after losing to Oklahoma City on Thursday, and guard Austin Reaves claimed referee John Goble was “disrespectful” during an interaction.