Once the playoffs began, Flip Saunders always became part four-star general, part Sigmund Freud and part Mean Gene Okerlund.
He was at his best in the postseason, stirring things up by playing mind games, applying his own brand of motivational tactics and making each upcoming contest sound like the next showdown at the OK Corral.
"It's going to be chippy!" he once said of an upcoming playoff contest against Portland.
Chippy like hockey? Why is that, Flip?
Because, Saunders explained, Rasheed Wallace was playing dirty. In fact, Wallace hit Kevin Garnett in, well, an area that is usually considered off-limits.