Count Bulls’ Harper as Another Pond Lover : Basketball: Former Clipper forward scores a season-high 18 points to help lead Chicago to a 104-98 victory.

Make Ron Harper owner of the Clippers and he would . . .

“Move ‘em to The Pond,” he said. “But they ain’t. I know they ain’t. I know [team owner] Donald Sterling too well. He loves L.A. way too much to move them down here.”

Don’t blame Harper--freed from his self-proclaimed five-year sentence with the Clippers before last season for a fat contract with the Chicago Bulls--from digging this hockey arena turned hoop haven.

The place was pretty darn good to him Saturday night.

Harper scored a season-high 18 points, nearly 12 more than his average, to complement Michael Jordan’s 37 in a 104-98 Bulls’ victory over the Clippers.

The Clippers play eight of their 41 regular-season home games this season at The Pond, and Anaheim has been mentioned by NBA Commissioner David Stern as a possible expansion site by the year 2000.

Many NBA observers consider Stern’s comments a way of prodding Sterling into moving the Clippers to The Pond, where they drew 18,321 Saturday night. But Sterling maintains he has no intention of moving the team out of the Sports Arena.

“This is a great place to play basketball,” Harper said. “It’s sad that they don’t have a team here. They need one. The fans are great, they know the game.

“All you hear around the league is that they might move. But I don’t see it happening any time soon.”

This from a guy who loathed playing in the Sports Arena during the 1993-94 season, his last with the Clippers.

This from a guy who complained that playing for the Clippers was like being in jail.

This from a guy who started the “Free Ron Harper” campaign in the final weeks of the season.

“I always enjoyed playing here,” Harper said. “I can’t complain at all. L.A. has been good to me.”

That’s after he got his wish via free agency. That’s after the Bulls signed him to a five-year, $19.4 million deal before the 1994-95 season in hopes his scoring could soften the loss of Jordan, who left the team to play baseball.

But Harper, who had averaged more than 19 points a game in five seasons with the Clippers, foundered in the Bulls’ complex triangle offense. A 6-foot-6 guard who slashes to the basket, Harper was suddenly expected to hit the jumper.

He didn’t.

He averaged 6.9 points in 77 games, including 53 starts. His fanny was warming the bench by the end of the regular season, and he was used mainly for defense in the playoffs.

He entered Saturday night’s game averaging only 6.5 points. But a 10-point game Thursday at Vancouver, coupled with Saturday’s six-for-seven shooting shows a glimmer of promise in an offense that includes Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Toni Kukoc.

“Ron gave us a boost tonight,” Bulls Coach Phil Jackson said. “He plays a lot of great defense and is getting better offensively.

“Our offense forces our guards to take jump shots, and Ron doesn’t fit that role. But he’s become more of a playmaker for us.

Harper scored five points during a one-minute stretch late in the first quarter. He drove on Clipper center Brian Williams, scored, drew a foul and completed the three-point play. He added a short jumper off the glass with 47 seconds left, and the Bulls pulled away to a 30-12 lead.