Blood was shed during a heated preseason battle between the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets on Saturday night.

With 9:30 left in the third quarter, Spurs unicorn Victor Wembanyama and Rockets reliever Dillon Brooks tackled each other to the ground while fighting for a loose ball.

It was a situation that would normally turn into a jump ball, but instead the situation escalated towards violence.

As Wemby tightened his grip on the basketball in the middle of the court while sitting, Brooks continued to tug at the 7-foot-4 Spurs midfielder by aggressively hugging him from behind.

Spurs players Jeremy Sochan, Harrison Barnes and Chris Paul were annoyed by Brooks’ extracurricular physicality and immediately surrounded Wemby in his defence.

The Rockets players followed suit, and suddenly a scuffle broke out.

With both the Spurs and Rockets players restrained by coaches and officials, Chris Paul violently swung his arm to either free himself from another person’s grasp or throw a punch at Dillon Brooks.

Whether Paul intentionally delivered a blow to Brooks is unclear from the footage, but Brooks ultimately escaped with his nose cut open from Paul’s punch.

Brooks was pulled from the fight with a bloody nose, all the while screaming obscenities at Paul.

San Antonio ultimately won the game 109-106 behind 29 points, seven rebounds and three blocks from Wembanyama.

More NBA: Spurs could acquire former Lakers champion in $90 million deal with Wizards