Much like Danny Ainge, Mark Bartlestein has treated the travails of his client ? Mark Blount ? as a situation that requires tact, not bluster.

To that end, the Chicago-based agent said yesterday that Blount has not requested a trade over his recent benching and apparent falling out with Celtics coach Doc Rivers.

?Nothing like that at all,? Bartlestein said. ?I talk with Danny all the time, and we?re just trying to work this out. Mark has shown that he can be a terrific player in this league. The team was losing, and he was frustrated. He just wants to help the team get going back in the right direction.?

Blount seconded that notion after practice and expressed both surprise and gratitude for the warm crowd reaction he received after coming in off the bench for Kendrick Perkins Monday.

?I was enjoying it,? he said. ?They were saying things like, ?Let?s go, Mark.? You never know what?s going to happen. They are the best fans.?

Blount is dealing with his new role off the bench.

?Whatever,? he said. ?I just have to do what I do. I?m just enjoying it. It?s not a problem for me.?

Of Bartlestein?s recent contact with Ainge, Blount said, ?My agent has made contact, and he?s keeping the airwaves open. As long as I?m here, I?m here. I don?t have a problem playing. It is what it is. I keep going.?

The Celtics are laughing at reports they have spoken to Minnesota about acquiring center Michael Olowokandi.

According to Danny Ainge, no such discussions have taken place.

Celtics guard Delonte West plans to add some spice to the Celtics rotation, returning from two games off because of a left hip bruise.

?I feel great,? he said. ?I had a full day of practice. I actually took a charge, so I?m proud of that. I?m ready to go (tonight). Even thought I baby-sitted it a little bit, I did take a little contact. It?s not 100 percent, but I can play.?

Having now seen the Celtics defensive woes as a spectator, West will be focusing attention on those duties.

?I?m not going to go out there and try to stop everybody who touches the ball,? he said, ?but it does start from the head ? the point guard. They kind of have to take my (lead) on the defensive end. If I?m sitting back, our whole defense is lax, so I will try to initiate the style of the defensive effort.?

The Atlanta Hawks became the last NBA team to win a game, outlasting the Boston Celtics 120-117 Wednesday night as Al Harrington scored 34 points.

Zaza Pachulia added 19 points and 13 rebounds as the Hawks finally won after losing their first nine games -- the longest winless start in franchise history.

Joe Johnson scored 13 points, all in the second half, and made three free throws in the final 30 seconds to help the Hawks protect the lead.

Topping their previous scoring high for the season by 23 points, the Hawks finally won by shooting 56 percent from the field.

Boston Celtics guard Tony Allen was indicted Wednesday on three counts of aggravated battery stemming from a fight that escalated into a shooting outside a Chicago diner in August.

Cook County state's attorney spokesman Tom Stanton said the indictment, handed down by a grand jury, was read to Allen during a hearing Wednesday. Allen did not enter a plea.

Allen, who was charged last month with aggravated battery and released on a $150,000 bond, is scheduled to return to court Dec. 6 for arraignment, Stanton said.

Aggravated battery carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Swingman Qyntel Woods is supposedly working out in Cleveland trying to get back to the NBA. He was waived by the Celtics before training camp began.

The Cavaliers are overloaded at that position and probably have no interest in his services.

For the second time in a row in Boston, Ricky Davis hit the game-winning shot in the closing seconds to beat Memphis.
Davis made a jumper as time expired, and Paul Pierce scored 29 points as the Celtics overcame an 18-point deficit to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 99-98 Wednesday night.

After Eddie Jones' jumper gave the Grizzlies a one-point lead with 13 seconds remaining, Pierce was double-teamed as he drove baseline and passed to Davis, who was wide open at the foul line.

"It was going to be Pierce or Davis," Grizzlies coach Mike Fratello said. "It's not like we didn't talk about both of them. We lost the game here last year with Davis taking the last shot."

Hall of Fame center Robert Parish was hired as a consultant by the Boston Celtics, whom the 7-footer helped to three NBA titles in the 1980s.

The team said Wednesday that Parish will be involved in marketing and community relations, including public appearances and autograph sessions.

"I'm excited to be back in Boston working with the Celtics as this young and talented team develops," Parish said in a statement. "The fans of Boston have been great to me."

Richard Hamilton's previous buzzer-beater was in 1998, one of the more famous shots in NCAA tournament history that gave Connecticut a win over Washington and a berth in round of eight.

He made another one on Friday night, a 20-foot jumper as time expired that gave the Detroit Pistons an 82-81 victory over the Boston Celtics.

"The guys did an excellent job," Hamilton said. "Tay [Tayshaun Prince] made a great pass and Ben [Wallace] and Ray [Rasheed Wallace] set great screens."

Prince, who the Celtics elected not to guard on the inbounds pass, found Hamilton just inside the 3-point arc and he got the shot off as time expired.

"We had a few options. With 0.8 seconds [remaining], you've got to get something really quick," said Pistons guard Chauncey Billups, who had 16 points and eight assists. "There's no better guy in the league to get that shot than Rip Hamilton. That's his bread and butter."

The very mention of how Sheryl Swoopes and her groundbreaking announcement might apply to the NBA jerked Paul Pierce into abrupt laughter yesterday.

What if, like the WNBA?s reigning Most Valuable Player, an NBA athlete ? not necessarily a star ? announced that he was gay?

The Celtics captain couldn?t picture such a player.

?I probably wouldn?t want to guard him,? Pierce said, seemingly only half joking. Which is precisely what Pierce and others claim an outwardly gay NBA player would have to absorb ? a lot of tough jokes and tawdry humor.

?It?s a lot different in the WNBA,? Pierce said. ?A lot of the girls there are (gay) anyway. I didn?t know that (Swoopes) was gay, but I?m not really surprised. I?ve seen a few of them out together, and you just know.

?But professional basketball would be tough for a guy. You?re talking about only 12 guys in the locker room. It?s personal. It would be tough out in public, too. Our faces are seen more than baseball, where they have a hat, or football with helmets.?

Swoopes, a divorced mother of one, certainly put a public face on her own league last week in making her announcement. The three-time Olympic gold medalist made the announcement in advance of a new endorsement for a cruise line that caters to lesbians.

Doc Rivers agreed that Swoopes probably has a significant base of support within her own league. Though the Celtics coach admitted that a gay NBA player would be isolated, Rivers also expressed hope that today?s athlete is enlightened enough to accept a gay teammate.

That said, Rivers added that the player would need a thick skin and a willingness to absorb what is guaranteed to sprout from locker room culture.

?The jabs wouldn?t stop,? Rivers said. ?And the guy would have to take it. He?d have to understand that it wasn?t personal. The great thing about team sports are the ways these guys can get on each other in the locker room and on the bus rides, and it?s brutal. These guys leave no rocks unturned, and the great thing about it is that the guy who?s the target laughs along with it.

?If a guy came out and said he was gay, for a day no one would say anything, but then right after that they would kill him. And it would be in a team way. That?s all that I hope would happen.?

Robert Parish isn?t so sure. The Celtics Hall of Famer, who recently joined the team?s community relations department, said he would fear for a gay player, even if he would applaud such an announcement.

?Pro sports are all about macho, having that chip on your shoulder from all that testosterone flowing through the locker room,? Parish said. ?Nothing?s taboo in a pro locker room, except family members. Everything else is free game. It?s a male chauvinist environment at its highest. A player like that could even suffer some bodily harm if he wasn?t careful.

?I?m afraid we?ve got a long ways to go. I know I won?t see a change in my lifetime. Maybe my children?s lifetime, though.?

Parish?s acceptance of gay culture may be connected to his NBA roots. He started playing in San Francisco for the Warriors in 1976. After spending his life in rural Louisiana, the Bay Area?s denizens were, as Parish said, ?eye opening ? oh my goodness, umm umm umm.

   ?I had never seen anything like that,? he said. ?It made me pause. But I never was appalled. The only thing that shocked me was that it was going on in public. I had never seen such a blatant display.?

?No time soon,? Parish said. ?It would be a very, very uncomfortable environment to step forward in. It would probably make someone retire, because they couldn?t take the heat. Men in general are more homophobic. Society is more accepting of woman-on-woman sex than man-on-man. Women on women? That?s a man?s fantasy right there.?