Playoff basketball is a lot like love: it can make you do some strange things.

Check the Milwaukee Bucks, for example. Darvin Ham showed up to the Bradley Center before Game 1 against the Magic dressed in full Desert Storm fatigues -- complete with boots and a U.S. Marine Corps T-shirt. Ham picked up the clothes the day before at an Army surplus store to get him in a combative frame of mind. "This series is war and I'm a soldier," said Ham. Before he left for practice the next day he was saluting people and saying "See you at 1300 hours."

Scott Williams was a bit more conventional. The veteran of three championships with the Chicago Bulls, Williams thought of showing some of the younger Bucks his Finals rings. "I wanted to use them as a motivating factor since many of the guys were asking about them," said Williams. The power forward even wanted to wear the rings throughout the playoffs. One problem: he can't find the key to his safety deposit box. The Williams family moved in November to Danny Manning's old crib and a few things got lost along the way. "We're going to have to get the box drilled to get them out," he said. It's gonna be up to Sam Cassell if the youngsters want to see rings.

Ray Allen is on a different wavelength altogether. Several of Ray's female relatives are in town for the series and they all got together and painted their nails Bucks colors to show support. There was some polish left over and Ray's girlfriend convinced him to let her paint his toes. So somewhere in his left Air Jordan, Allen's toenails are alternately painted with green and purple sparkle paint. "It's my good luck charm," he claims. "I'll keep it until we lose."

Yup, the playoffs can make you do some strange things. Then again, so can love.

Chris Palmer covers The NBA Life for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at christopher.palmer@espnmag.com.