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 Washington beat the Celtics 114-69 Thursday night.

“In terms of what we all envisioned, in putting this team together, tonight it worked perfectly,” Jordan said. “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.”‘

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 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 eighteen, those kind of deflated us,” said former Kansas University player Paul Pierce, who scored 12 points on 3-for-16 shooting for Boston.

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.

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.

Hawks 105, Jazz 98

Atlanta Glenn Robinson scored 30 points and Jason Terry added 21 points and 13 assists as Atlanta beat Utah in its home opener. Shareef Abdur-Rahim, who missed the opener because of a sore back, scored 10 of Atlanta’s points in a 15-6 run at the start of the third period for a 65-52 lead. Karl Malone led Utah with 20 points.

Kings 100, Blazers 72

Sacramento, Calif. Peja Stojakovic scored 26 points, and Bobby Jackson had 20 points and 10 rebounds as Sacramento overcame the absence of three starters.

Chris Webber was held out because of strained lower abdominal muscles. Doug Christie finished his two-game suspension for a preseason fight, while Webber sat in street clothes with Mike Bibby and reserve Mateen Cleaves both sidelined by foot injuries.