The Detroit News’ Chris McCosky reports the Pistons’ Rasheed Wallace has Zero Tolerance for Zero Tolerance.

“They’ve already taken the fun out of the game with these rules and now this no-tolerance law,” said Wallace, who has picked up four technicals in four games as the NBA has stepped up its efforts to curtail on-court disputes with officials.

“It definitely wears down on your psyche. It’s almost to the point where I’m like, well, I don’t want to go too hard because I am going to get psyched up and get a tech. Nah, they just wear down on you.”

Wallace,has received technicals for telling referee Luis Grillo he was tired of taking elbows from Milwaukee’s Charlie Villanueva, for discussing a call with referee Jack Nies and for throwing his arm down in the and-one signal after he felt he was fouled after a making a tough basket Monday.

League officials said Monday that referee Steve Javie interpreted Wallace’s arm motion as waving off the official.

“They are trying to say it’s not a no-tolerance law — that’s bull,” Wallace said. “They are like the U.S. government denying everything to the end. It’s me. They say we can have a professional conversation? That’s not happening at all. They are just going to say, I said this and I said that. All it is, is vindictiveness.”

T-Wolves’ motormouth Ricky Davis described Portland as “a pack of roaches” over the weekend, hardly the first person to refer to roaches and the Blazers in the same sentence. From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Steve Aschburner.

“They’re in our division. They’re not going to win the division, put it that way,” Davis said after the Wolves’ morning shootaround. “We just have to make sure next time, when we get up 15, we bury them.”

Davis didn’t deny that he dropped the “roaches” tag on Portland in the first half of what became an 88-86 Wolves loss. His team had led by as many as 16 but the Blazers, apparently insulted, roared back in the fourth quarter.

“That win goes against that entire team,” Portland guard Martell Webster said. “If you have any dignity, if you have any pride, hearing something like that puts a chip on your shoulder.”

No one in the Wolves camp faulted Davis for his comment. Still, might it have been wiser to let sleeping bugs lie?

“I’m sure some of those guys have been called worse than that,” Kevin Garnett said. “I don’t think he meant that internally, but I’m not Rick Davis — I’m not apologizing for him. Different guys get up different ways.

“If Nate [McMillan, Portland’s coach] used that for motivation, it worked, getting them started up.”

Presumably, neither Davis nor KG will be calling Andrew Bynum a roach anytime soon. The Lakers’ 19 year old center had 20 points and 14 rebounds in 29 minutes last night, in Los Angeles’ 95-88 win over Minnesota.