Majerle Shot Sinks Lakers : Basketball: He makes three-pointer for Suns as time expires after Peeler scores with 1.6 seconds to play.

Dan Majerle’s 33-foot shot arched high and fast, seeming to almost touch the roof of the America West Arena.

“It came straight down like a rainbow,” Byron Scott said.

And when it fell through the net, giving the Phoenix Suns a 115-114 victory, the Lakers’ hearts fell with it.

“No matter how well you play, how hard you play, and you show the type of character and heart we did, it’s really tough to lose that way,” said Scott, whose three-pointer with 1:27 to play erased the last of what had been a 20-point Phoenix lead and put the Lakers ahead, 110-109, Tuesday night.

“They’re a great team, and when a team like that is playing well, everything seems to go. When you’re not playing well, it’s just not going.”

Scott made two free throws for a 112-109 lead, which Majerle matched with a three-pointer off a pass from Kevin Johnson after Johnson rebounded his own missed shot.

Anthony Peeler’s jumper from the top of the key gave the Lakers a 114-112 lead with 1.6 seconds to play.

The Suns had Oliver Miller inbound the ball to Charles Barkley, who found Majerle for a seemingly impossible shot that extended Phoenix’s winning streak to eight and dropped the Lakers to their ninth loss in 10 games.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing, I guess,” Majerle said. “We got backed into a corner, and our guys found a way to win.”

A.C. Green was late in getting to Majerle, but it’s debatable whether he could have harassed Majerle enough to prevent him from getting off the shot that gave Phoenix its first ever season-series sweep of the Lakers.

“I was definitely coming at him,” Green said, “because I wanted to distract his shot. We were playing everyone all the way . . . It was one of those things where you’ve got to throw it in, and he did.”

Said Coach Randy Pfund, whose team will play the Suns in the opening round of the playoffs if it can maintain its lead over Denver for the eighth Western Conference playoff spot: “I don’t know what you can say. We put ourselves in position to win the game, and we didn’t. That’s what happens when things aren’t particularly going (well) for you.”

He also credited Duane Cooper for leading the Laker comeback. The rookie point guard from USC had played only three minutes during the last 2 1/2 weeks, but looked poised when he replaced a defensively vulnerable and flailing Doug Christie.

“It felt good to be out there, because that’s where I want to be,” Cooper said, “but we lost, and that’s the only thing that matters.”

Despite persistent reports that his job is in jeopardy, Pfund has maintained his sense of purpose.

“If we were going through this kind of stretch in November, I’d be worried about the players’ confidence in the coach,” he said. “I don’t think that’s a major factor now. If you look at this stretch, even in the games we’ve lost, they’ve been lost in the last four, five minutes. It’s not like we’re losing by 25. If we weren’t confident, we wouldn’t be able to stay competitive.”

Pfund also said he had a conversation Sunday with team owner Jerry Buss, who issued no win-or-else ultimatums. Pfund hasn’t recently spoken with General Manager Jerry West, who was in New Orleans for the Final Four.

“I’m not looking at this point for how they (team executives) are reacting,” Pfund said. “I know how our ownership and management feels right now, and it’s that we’re not playing well and we’ve got to play better.”

Playing better defensively would be logical place to start. The Suns’ 44 points were the most scored during the first quarter against the Lakers this season--Phoenix also had the previous high of 37--and in taking a 74-63 halftime lead, the Suns tied a season high for first-half points by an opponent. Phoenix shot 63.3% during the first half, led by Johnson, who was nine of 12 and scored 21 points.

The Lakers trailed by only four with 9:24 to play in the second quarter, but a series of missed shots and turnovers inflated that to 55-44 in a span of 2:06. In the third quarter, they narrowed their deficit to 89-81 and had the ball, but a bank shot by Worthy didn’t fall and Danny Ainge made a layup to restore the Suns’ lead to double figures.

Laker Notes

Byron Scott, who probably will be replaced in the starting lineup by Anthony Peeler for at least one game before the season ends, said he wouldn’t object to such a move. “He (Coach Randy Pfund) has got to do what he’s got to do in order to get us back on the winning track,” said Scott, who sat out the entire second quarter and played only 25 minutes. “If that’s one of the things he’s thinking about, that’s his decision.” Peeler had 13 points Tuesday night. . . . The starting time of the Lakers’ game against Golden State April 18 at the Forum has been changed from noon to 7:30 p.m. Sunday’s game against Seattle remains a 12:30 start.