The buzzer may have ended the game, but it didn’t cool things down Wednesday night in San Antonio.

Moments after the San Antonio Spurs’ 107-91 win over the Los Angeles Lakers at Frost Bank Center, tensions flared between Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt and Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan.

As players gathered during the traditional postgame congratulations, Vanderbilt and Sochan were seen exchanging words near midcourt. During their discussion, Vanderbilt and Sochan were nose-to-nose before Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox attempted to separate the two. As Vanderbilt was being led away, he poked Sochan in the face with his left index finger, drawing an immediate response from Spurs forward Julian Champagnie, who shoved Vanderbilt as teammates rushed in.

“I must’ve said something to him during the game, and maybe it wasn’t very nice,” Sochan said after the game.”He must have taken it in the wrong way and told me to see him after the game. So, I did. And we just had a polite exchange. I was, I think, intact and very joyful, and the other person wasn’t. Yeah, he just wasn’t emotionally stable in that moment. So, it’s something he has to work on. It’s just life.”

Champagnie, who was unaware of what started the altercation, said he was reacting to protect his teammate.

“I don’t know what happened. Obviously, he talks (on) the bench, and we talked during the game. He’s a funny guy. He plays around a lot. I could imagine he said something that had no ill intent towards it. He may have taken it a certain way. When I walked over, they were talking. I thought they were laughing because he was laughing.”

Champagnie made it clear his response was about loyalty as much as anything else. “I saw him point his finger and get in his face. For me, last year, I got into a little scuffle. He was there for me, so I figured I’d have his back. That’s how I was trying to go with it.”

Lakers stars Luka Dončić and Jaxson Hayes also stepped in to help Fox separate the players as the verbal back-and-forth continued for a few moments longer.

Vanderbilt finished with four points on 2-of-6 shooting in 19 minutes, adding a steal. He declined to speak with The Athletic in the Lakers’ locker room afterward. Sochan, meanwhile, logged six points on a 2-for-2 shooting night with one assist in 11 minutes, contributing to a Spurs win. It marked Sochan’s second straight appearance after a brief stretch out of the rotation.

“I thought he competed his butt off, did a great job offensively, shot the ones that came to him, and he was in rhythm, made them,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said of Sochan.

With the trade deadline looming, Sochan opened up about his path to the league and the bond he’s built with San Antonio. “I left home at 15, and this is the first time I’ve been somewhere for more than a year since then. This is my home. I feel like I’ve put in a lot of blood and sweat here to this city,” he said. ” It’s up and down. There’s days where it’s sunny and then days where it’s dark.”