The reporter, Chris Sheridan, attended both Wednesday’s game and Thursday’s practice and was approached by Wallace after practice ended. In his story, Sheridan wrote of “ … what appears to be a growing note of discord and disharmony - aw, heck, let’s just call it hate - between Rasheed Wallace and coach Flip Saunders.”

To support his assertion, Sheridan cited an incident from the third quarter Wednesday night when Wallace left a timeout huddle before his teammates to sit on the scorer’s table near mid-court. Sheridan correctly noted that “Wallace has been doing this for years,” but contended this incident was different because of the way his teammates looked at him and the fact Chris Webber went to speak to him as he sat on the scorer’s table, though reporters who observed their exchange saw nothing that indicated disharmony

“He did that all 64 games we won last year and he did that all 18 games we lost,” Saunders said. “That’s just what he’s always done. He’s never doing anything to be disrespectful. He’s not leaving the huddle before everything is said. When he leaves the huddle, it’s because we’re done.

“He’s done that his whole career. Some guys want to sit down, some guys stand and walk around. His thing is he goes and sits at center court and thinks about things. A lot of times, I’ll go up and I’ll talk to him there. He’s not doing that out of disrespect.

“I don’t think he hates me. That’s a pretty strong statement.”

Wallace repeatedly asked Sheridan if he’d ever heard the writer’s assertions come from Wallace and, as he walked away, said “that’s how that (garbage) gets started.”

Saunders said he’s seen good signs from Wallace over the past week and cautioned only that he must continue to straddle the line between playing with the necessary emotion and biting his lip to avoid the technical fouls that put the Pistons in a tough position during close games.

“It’s a fine line with Sheed because two weeks ago he had no emotion and that’s all we talked about,” Saunders said. “He’s got to play with emotion. The last two technicals he’s had, Atlanta and here, he’s actually been talking to his teammate, (Antonio) McDyess. McDyess was more shocked at the T than anybody.”

Saunders traces Wallace’s uneven season to the ankle injured in last season’s playoff run. It hampered him to start the season and also affected his conditioning. When Saunders extended his minutes as the Pistons got off to a rocky start, Wallace began putting up better numbers. But the extended minutes might have contributed to continued ankle and subsequent knee problems that forced him to sit out a few games, throwing him out of rhythm again.

“Now he’s gradually starting to get back into shape,” Saunders said. “He got tired down the stretch (in Wednesday’s game). Until he gets in the shape he can really be in, we’re going to have to limit his minutes a little bit and keep him in that 30-minute range, under 30, and try to use McDyess, try to use (Jason Maxiell) a little more.”

The frontcourt, a work in progress all season, will continue to evolve as Chris Webber gets acclimated and deals with his own physical issues and Saunders figures out the best combinations. The prospect of a trade involving a big man, as team president Joe Dumars has suggested is “probably inevitable,” also clouds the issue.

McDyess has scored a season-high 16 points in each of his last two games despite back spasms and appears to be finally hitting his stride as one of the NBA’s most reliable sixth men.

“He’s playing with good energy,” Saunders said. “He’s fought his way through it. We’ve got to find a way to play Maxey. We need his energy. He’s our best pick-and-roll defender, he’s our best as far as taking charges. We’ve got to find a way to get him into the mix and have two energy guys in both McDyess and Maxey who are able to play.”

The most significant news to come from Thursday’s practice as that Chauncey Billups’ right calf muscle suffered no ill effects from his first game action in 17 days, but the primary benefit of practice was the education of Webber.

“He has a better understanding of what we’re trying to do and he’s been able to see more offensively and really go through more things defensively in order to help out, some concepts and try to simplify things,” Saunders said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to extend him. He’ll be more comfortable, no question, tomorrow night than he was last night.”

Saunders said he thinks Webber, who played 17 minutes in his debut, will play in the mid- to high 20s in minutes, and Webber said, “I can play as much as need be.”

“It felt good just getting to know guys’ habits and understand the system,” Webber said of the benefits of going through a full practice. “Yesterday was just kind of feeling your way through it..”

After Wednesday’s game, Webber repeatedly said he saw the promise of “something special” for his new team. After a night to sleep on it, he said, “I felt better about my decision to come here after last night’s loss than I did the day I made it.”