NEW ORLEANS -- Michael Jordan hit a fallaway jump shot from the right elbow to pass Wilt Chamberlain for third place in career NBA scoring Wednesday night as the Washington Wizards played the New Orleans Hornets.

The basket, which gave Jordan 14 points with a minute left in first half, put Jordan's career scoring at 31,420 points in his 1,032nd regular season game.

The crowd, which gave Jordan an enthusiastic welcome when the Wizards' starting lineup was announced earlier, once again applauded heartily when the public address announcer made note of Jordan's milestone during the next stoppage in play.

Jordan gave a quick wave to acknowledge the crowd, then got back to business, hitting his next shot, a jumper from the top of the key.

Chamberlain scored 31,419 points in 1,045 regular season games. Jordan now trails only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who scored 38,387 career points, and Karl Malone, who had 35,487 points after Utah's game Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Clippers.