Flip

Saunders said the games had a "playoff-type atmosphere," but as intense as they were, Billups and Saunders understand that an Eastern final matchup would take this rivalry to another level.

Said Saunders, "You know there is an opportunity that you might play against those people in the playoffs and we'll have to go through each other. You get a little juiced up to play them."

"But we'll find out something the last 30 games because the Celtics have played the fewest games against the West Coast of anybody. Now their schedule gets a little bit tougher and they have to play some of those teams and see where they pan out."

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Flip starts out the interview well, but ends it by clinging to the delusion that the Cs aren't really as good as they appear.

A built-in rationalization as to why the Pistons keep losing to the GREEN, a rationalization that goes something like this:

"Once the Celtics start losing out West, the curtain will be lifted and the Wizard will be revealed as a fraud." "Then," Flips says to himself, "the Pistons will surely beat the Celtics." Flip will no doubt continue to keep this nugget tucked away in his closet and pull it out when in need of comfort.