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.
“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.”
RESULTS, THURSDAY’S SYNOPSIS
Utah 98 at Atlanta 105, Glenn Robinson scored 30 points and Jason Terry added 21 points and 13 assists in the Hawks’ home opener.
Boston 69 at Washington 114, Last season’s No. 1 draft pick Kwame Brown finished with 20 points, six rebounds and six blocks for the Wizards.
Portland 72 at Sacramento 100, Peja Stojakovic scored 26 points and Bobby Jackson had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Kings.
