AUBURN HILLS, MICH. ? Bill Laimbeer glared across the court at Michael Cooper.

Then Laimbeer smiled, pumped his fist and opened his eyes like saucers as Cooper turned away.

Laimbeer used to taunt Cooper and his Los Angeles Lakers teammates with his physical play and intimidating presence while with the Detroit Pistons.

Now, Laimbeer just does it with a grin as he proves a bad boy can be a successful WNBA coach.

Laimbeer’s Detroit Shock team has surprised most with their winning ways this season, including an 87-78 overtime win over Cooper’s two-time defending champion Los Angeles Sparks.

The victory established Detroit as a contender and ended the WNBA’s longest winning streak at 18 games, dating back to last season.

Laimbeer relished the win as time ran off the clock in the same sort of cocky fashion that infuriated opponents and fans during his career in the NBA from 1979-93

“I was trying to get Cooper’s eye,” Laimbeer said before filling a hallway with laughter. “I didn’t get his eye because he was a little perturbed. But then I shook his hand, and I told him we’d see him in September.”

Laimbeer was referring to a possible matchup with the Sparks in the WNBA finals.

After the game, Laimbeer looked as if he had played. His sweat-soaked, button-down shirt was stuck to his body and a cup of beer rested in his huge right hand.

“I look like this because I’m one of them,” Laimbeer said. “I’m still a player and a teammate. I happen to be the boss, but I’m on their side.”

In a twist, Karl Malone has to root for the starting power forward on Laimbeer’s team because the Shock drafted his daughter, Cheryl Ford, with the third pick in this year’s draft.

Even though Laimbeer and Malone played just twice a season, they were fierce enemies.

In 1991, Malone hit Detroit’s Isiah Thomas — Laimbeer’s close friend and teammate — with an elbow so hard that he had a 40-stitch cut above his eye. Two years later, Laimbeer was ejected from a game after knocking Malone to the floor.

“I looked to see who it was, and I wasn’t surprised,” Malone said at the time.

Ford said she never saw her father play Laimbeer, and the 22-year-old insisted that her father hasn’t said anything to her about her coach.

“He’ll be at a game in July,” Ford said. “I’m sure he’ll have something to say then.”

Laimbeer was a four-time All-Star and won two NBA titles with the Pistons. He scored nearly 14,000 points and grabbed more than 10,000 rebounds in his 14-season career.

But his accomplishments were often overshadowed because he was regarded — outside of Detroit — as one of the dirtiest players in the NBA.

Some may be surprised that he’s far from an in-your-face coach.

“I’m not a yeller or a screamer and it has nothing to do with the fact that I’m coaching women because I hated coaches like that that ranted and raved,” Laimbeer said. “I can challenge the ladies verbally without raising my voice and I can do it with my eyes.”