For a Change, Clippers Just Have Fun at Forum : Pro basketball: Their 124-98 victory is their most lopsided on the Lakers’ home court. Vandeweghe comes off bench to score 24 points.

The payback tour, continued:

The Clippers, who lost a close game to the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night and then responded with a resounding victory the next night, moved to the Forum on Friday to play the Lakers, who had beaten them in overtime opening night.

Taking a big lead early and in control most of the night, the Clippers scored a 124-98 victory as Kiki Vandeweghe had a game-high 24 points off the bench.

During the second half, the Clippers’ onslaught worked on the record book. They came away with the franchise’s most-lopsided victory at the Forum, breaking the mark of 23 set in the days of the Buffalo Braves. The Clippers’ most lopsided victory overall came by 30 points last season at the Sports Arena.

“It felt great, especially after the way they beat us with a last-second shot the last game,” said the Clippers’ Loy Vaught, who had 17 points and seven rebounds, doing most of the damage during the first half. “We wanted to get some revenge. That was all the motivation we needed.”

The Clippers won their second in a row after three losses to open the season. This was more impressive than their victory over the Kings on Wednesday night at the Sports Arena, though.

It came against the Lakers, which automatically makes it worth treasuring.

And it came at the Forum, site of Clipper defeats in 21 of the previous 22 visits.

“I don’t get involved in that stuff of biggest win as long as we win,” Ron Harper said after getting 13 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.

“We can win by one point, 10 points or 55 points. This was a big game.”

But better than losing by two in overtime.

“An awful lot better,” he said.

The Lakers, who have lost two in a row at home to open the season for the first time since 1981-82, shot only 39.8%, compared to 53.2% for the Clippers. Vlade Divac and Byron Scott led the Lakers with 17 points each and reserve Anthony Peeler added 16.

“I didn’t think we could play that bad on our home floor again, but Friday the 13th proved me wrong,” Laker Coach Randy Pfund said, referring to the 10-point loss to Sacramento in the Forum opener Sunday.

“We seemed to pick up where we left off late in the game (Thursday) night. . . . It seemed as though we had some kind of hangover.”

Maybe the Lakers never made it back from Seattle, where they were outscored Thursday in the fourth quarter, 34-18, and lost by 12. Friday, the Clippers pounced on them for a double-digit lead within the opening 6:27.

“We caught them at a great time,” Clipper Coach Larry Brown said. “We’re sitting here waiting for them. It was almost like a home game for us.”

The Lakers shot 28.6%--eight of 28--during the first quarter. The Clippers were merely warming up.

An 11-2 run gave the Clippers a 38-23 lead early in the second half. It went to 43-29 when Vandeweghe made two free throws with 6:38 left. And by halftime, the Clippers were ahead, 62-44.

The Lakers had to shoot 55.6% during the second quarter to reach 39.1% and 44 points at halftime, giving them only 62 the previous three quarters going back to the SuperSonic game. The opposition had 96 points during that stretch.

This all was something of a turnaround from opening night at the Sports Arena, when the Lakers took a big lead early and forced the Clippers to play catch-up to force overtime.

Who wasn’t there last Friday? Vaught, sidelined that night because of a sprained ankle but a major factor in the rematch with 15 points on seven-of-seven shooting and five rebounds during the first half alone.

“It’s as well as we have played defensively and that’s really the secret for us,” Vandeweghe said. “We have a lot of guys who can score on this team. But if we can limit the second chances and force them to take outside shots, we’re doing a good job.”

This time, there was no comeback in sight. The Clippers went ahead by 20 on two more free throws by Vandeweghe, then by 24 and finally by 30 on Harper’s short baseline jumper to make the score 87-57 with 2:51 remaining in the third quarter.

The Clippers had taken the Lakers and the Forum crowd out of the game. Fans didn’t make much noise during the second half, at least not more than when the result of the heavyweight title fight in Las Vegas was posted on the scoreboard.