NBA PLAYOFFS : Forum Turns Into Rout City : Western finals: Lakers play one of their best games for a 116-95 victory over Portland and a 3-1 lead in the series.

Look for this one in your video stores.

The Lakers crammed a highlight reel into 48 minutes Sunday and stunned the Portland Trail Blazers, 116-95, sending them back to Rip City feet first, down, 3-1, in the Western Conference finals.

If you blinked, you may have missed their turnaround. One spring after their Phoenix debacle, the Lakers are flirting with “team of destiny” status and their first trip to the NBA finals in two years.

They are 10-2 in the postseason.

They had a 20-point lead Friday against what was recently known as the best team in basketball.

Sunday, they were up by 33 .

The Lakers even ran like . . . well, the Lakers.

Honk if you remember Showtime.

“A lot of people said it’s dead, but it’s still around,” Magic Johnson said, grinning faintly. “It just took us this long to finally get to it.”

It took them one new coach and five new players. A year later, they have emerged, as efficient and intelligent as any group in the game, able to dominate a team widely held to be better than they are.

“I definitely think that,” Johnson said. “We’re an intelligent team. We know what we’re doing. We know what we have to do. We don’t deviate.

“Without a doubt, they have more talent than we do. Without a doubt.”

Sunday’s game, so important for both teams, was supposed to be a war and the Trail Blazers stole the first skirmish, scoring on eight of the first 10 possessions, outrebounding the Lakers, 5-0.

Something funny happened again, though.

As has been the case all series, Portland was unable to shake the Lakers. After playing their very best, the Trail Blazers led, 17-14.

At that point, Mike Dunleavy called time out and regrouped his defense.

From then until Johnson left the game with 6:55 left, the Lakers outscored the Blazers, 92-60.

The Lakers led, 32-23 after one quarter, an astonishing 62-42 at the half as desperate Portland Coach Rick Adelman junked his normal substitution pattern, playing veteran Walter Davis ahead of Danny Ainge, looking for a new face and a hot hand.

Dunleavy spent intermission reminding the Lakers of that March game in which the Trail Blazers rubbed out a 21-point deficit in 11 minutes of the third quarter at the Forum.

Good pupils, the Lakers saw the Trail Blazers cut it to 66-53, then hit them between the eyes again.

It was 93-71 after three quarters, an amazing 106-73 with 8:12 left.

The once-mellow Forum went up in joy, cheering so loudly at several breaks that the Laker Girls couldn’t dance.

“The crowd was just amazing,” A.C. Green said. “I knew it was out there, but it was just great to finally see it.

“It was fun. It was absolutely fun.

“I ran into Sam (Perkins) one time going for a rebound. I hit him and Portland got the ball. We looked at one another and Magic looked at us and we all just started laughing.”

It’s great to be a Laker today, not so good to be a Trail Blazer.

Adelman, wearing the look Pat Riley wore a year ago against Phoenix, praised the Lakers up to a point.

“I’ve got to give them credit,” he said. “but I think we’re shooting ourselves in the foot all the time.

“Once we started to miss some shots, we had a tendency to quick-shoot, not to push the ball. It seemed like they made every shot, even when we defended them. Between now and Tuesday, we have to come up with an answer.”

He needs several answers, not to mention three victories in a row.

Late in the afternoon, Portland finally left the building.

The bad news for the Trail Blazers, they have to hope they come back.

For the first time in the post-Riley era, the road to the NBA finals comes through here.

Laker Notes

A.C. Green had 16 points and seven rebounds in 28 minutes to go with his nine-nine in 26 Friday. Mike Dunleavy called him “the difference the last two games.” . . . Magic Johnson (22 points, nine rebounds, nine assists) said of Green: “He was just outstanding. A lot of times when a guy does all the dirty work, he doesn’t get the respect or the headlines. A.C. deserves all the credit.” . . . Said Green: “There’s been a lot of talk about me not playing that much (13 minutes in Games 1 and 2) but we were 1-1 coming back from Portland. That was a good position for us to be in. The most important thing for me is to win. If I have to sacrifice my body or my time, I’m willing to do that.”

In Games 3 and 4, Vlade Divac, who had 20 points and seven rebounds Sunday, outscored Kevin Duckworth, 36-12. Sam Perkins has outscored Buck Williams, 67-28. Williams has outrebounded him, 40-38. . . . Four teams rallied from 3-1 deficits to win playoff series: the 1968 Celtics vs. Philadelphia; the ’70 Lakers vs. Phoenix; the ’79 Bullets vs. San Antonio and the ’81 Celtics vs. Philadelphia. . . . For the first time in the series, the Lakers were faster to the ball. They outrebounded the Blazers until deep into garbage time, had more steals (12-6) and blocks (8-4). . . . In the past two games, Clyde Drexler has gone 13 for 36, Terry Porter 11 for 24. . . . Byron Scott, shooting 67% in the series: “I think the way we played today was just a beautiful thing to watch.”