WASHINGTON -- Never before in their 56-year history have the Boston Celtics been beaten so badly.
And who was on the other end of the 45-point loss? Michael Jordan, who suddenly doesn't look so old after all.
Shaking off a rusty performance that made him look all of his 39 years the night before, Jordan scored 21 points in 21 minutes and ignited a rout with a four-point flourish at the end of the first half as the Washington Wizards beat the Celtics 114-69 Thursday night.
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| Jordan (23) plows into Boston Celtics' Shammond Williams (11) during the third quarter of the Wizards' 114-69 win. (AP) |
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"In terms of what we all envisioned, in putting this team together, tonight it worked perfectly," said Jordan, who overhauled the roster over the summer. "I'd like to have about 55 more like this."
Boston's previous worst regular-season loss was 44 points, 128-84 at Portland on Jan. 4, 1977. It was the third-largest margin of victory in Wizards history.
"That surprises me -- all the games in that storied franchise," Washington coach Doug Collins said. "But trust me, I never in a million years dreamed that this would have happened tonight.
"I had breakfast with my wife and I said, 'I hope we score 70 points tonight -- two more than last night -- at least show some improvement."'
In the Celtics locker room, coach Jim O'Brien and his players found a lot of ways to say the same thing.
"We had a very bad night," O'Brien said. "We really did -- across the board. You can ask me a million questions, and we played badly."
At the end of the first half, Jordan made two free throws, raced to his right to steal the inbounds pass, pumped and made a 21-foot jumper -- complete with a little cancan kick -- just before the halftime buzzer. The Wizards had an 18-point lead as he left the court with a big smile to thunderous applause.
"A couple of turnovers, especially the two at the end of the half that put us down 18, those kind of deflated us," said Paul Pierce, who scored 12 points on 3-for-16 shooting. "Then we couldn't make shots, and that affected us on the defensive end. And then Mike comes out and hits a couple of fadeaway jumpers with good defense on him to get the team going."
Jordan scored just eight points and missed a dunk in the second half of Wednesday's season-opening loss at Toronto. He had more points than that in the second half against the Celtics. He was 8-of-15 from the field and 5-of-5 from the free-throw line and had four rebounds and five assists.
Jerry Stackhouse had 22 points and 10 assists for Washington. Kwame Brown, a disappointment as the No. 1 overall pick in the draft a year ago, had his second solid game. He set the defensive tone with four blocks in the first quarter and finished with 20 points, six rebounds and six blocks.
"Last year, I probably would have took the night off coming off an OK game," Brown said. "This year, I'm trying to stay consistent."
The Celtics shot 30 percent one night after they lost their opener at home to Chicago. Antoine Walker scored 12 points and was 5-of-16 from the field and is 10-of-39 in two games.
"From myself on down, we're worried about making shots," Walker said. "Tonight we got it handed to us."
The Celtics were outrebounded 59-31.
The Wizards missed their first six shots and trailed by seven points early, but it was the Celtics who couldn't hit a basket most of the game. After Brown's early dominance inside, Boston shot from well outside and watched them clank off the iron.
Jordan entered midway through the first quarter and tied it with a 15-foot jumper. Later, he showed he his still has some acceleration, blowing past Tony Delk on the right wing and drawing a foul as he approached the basket.
The four-point sequence at the end of the half put the Wizards ahead 58-40. The Celtics never threatened in the second half, when several of the big moments belonged to Brown.
The 20-year-old forward made a three-point play, dunked off a feed from Jordan and had a stellar sequence in which he blocked Walker at one end and made a jumper at the other to put the Wizards ahead by 20.
Jordan had one of his old flourishes at the end of the third quarter, making three straight tough jumpers in a 13-4 run. When Jordan was called for a foul during the run, he vehemently put up an argument that nearly drew a technical -- even though the Wizards were leading by 27.
"That's as good as I think I've ever had a team play -- just in every phase of the game," Collins said. "This was not the same team I watched last night."
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