Barkley Eclipses Lakers : Pro basketball: He has 25 points and 23 rebounds as Suns take 35-14 first-quarter edge and breeze, 116-100.

Missing: entire basketball team.

Wears gold and purple uniforms. Has storied past. Last seen carrying five-game winning streak into Dallas. Answers to the name of “Lakers.”

Whoever that was in their uniforms failed to come ready to play once again Friday night and fell to the Phoenix Suns, 116-100, at the Forum.

The Suns led by as many as 27 points and coasted to their ninth victory in a row, led by Charles Barkley, who had 25 points and 23 rebounds.

The Lakers, 13-6 before Wednesday’s pratfall at Dallas, were not only outplayed but outhustled. Of the 24 rebounds in the first quarter, the Suns took 18. Negele Knight, the Suns’ 5-11 point guard, had more rebounds than any Laker. Barkley had as many (six) as all the Lakers combined.

Laker Coach Randy Pfund, who held a special pregame walk-through before the Dallas game to warn against overconfidence, held another special practice Thursday--their only off-day between Monday and Sunday--to try to shake off the effects of the loss to the Mavericks.

Pfund is going to have to rethink his special practices.

“We were flat and got flatter,” Pfund said. “I think there were some reasons for it. I think the Dallas game affected us, no doubt about it.

“If our players’ day was anything like mine . . . I spent it on things that had had nothing to do with the Phoenix Suns (Christmas shopping).

“I should have stayed in the mall.”

The Suns (16-4) arrived in town with an eight-game winning streak, having won five of them on the road--and all of them without Kevin Johnson.

“We got a good team,” Barkley said before the game. “We’ve got a lot of good players.”

Surely there must be more to it?

“Long as we got me,” Barkley said, laughing, “we’re going to win.”

As long as they had a pulse, the Suns were looking good, because the Lakers were zombies from the opening tap. The Suns hit them with an 8-0 burst, then a 10-4 and then things began falling apart.

For three minutes, the Lakers stood around on offense, failed to get a shot inside 17 feet and went scoreless while the crowd began booing.

Late in the quarter, Knight missed a 17-footer, but the Suns got the rebound.

Then Cedric Ceballos missed a 20-footer . . . and the Suns got the rebound.

Then Barkley missed a three-pointer . . . and Knight chased that one down, too.

Finally Barkley hit Ceballos going to the hoop, Cedric dunked and boos echoed through the arena.

The Suns led, 35-14, after the first quarter.

The teams traded baskets through the second quarter, also known as the start of garbage time. The half ended, appropriately enough, when Vlade Divac threw an inbounds pass to Ceballos, who raced to the other end and hit a running 20-footer to beat the buzzer, giving the Suns a 62-40 lead, sending the Lakers to their dressing room under a chorus of boos.

The Suns pushed it to 73-46 early in the third quarter. The Lakers found enough life to cut it to 106-94 in garbage time but came no closer.

“We beat five teams on the road on the East Coast that really weren’t championship caliber,” Barkley said. “We wanted to prove we could beat a really good team on the road.”

Consider it proved.

Laker Notes

The game marked the NBA debut of Phoenix’s Richard Dumas, who missed last season because of a drug suspension. Originally a No. 2 pick from Oklahoma State, Dumas scored 16 points, making eight of 10 shots. “To come in and get points in crunch time shows you what I think of Richard Dumas,” Coach Paul Westphal said. “I think a lot of people enjoyed watching him play.” . . . Tony Smith made the first two three-point shots in his three-year career, after 21 misses.