Laker Defense Stops Perkins, SuperSonics : NBA: Threatt’s 25 points fuel 98-96 victory. L.A. is three games ahead of the Warriors for playoff spot.

Sam Perkins had the ball at the baseline and had one last chance to remind the Lakers how wrong they were to trade him to the SuperSonics on Feb. 22.

“I was trying to find someone and I knew time was running down,” Perkins said. “I saw Gary (Payton), but I couldn’t really get it to him--so I had to take a bad shot.

“They hustled. (Laker Coach Randy Pfund) had them going all game. They always rise to the occasion.”

As rare as winning has been lately for the Lakers, their 98-96 victory over Perkins and Seattle before 14,915 at the Forum on Sunday qualified as an occasion.

Perkins, traded to the SuperSonics for Benoit Benjamin and the rights to Doug Christie, led Seattle with 17 points, but he missed a 20-foot jumper with 4.3 seconds to play that would have tied the score at 96. Sedale Threatt nabbed the rebound and seconds later sank two free throws for a 98-94 edge, which was trimmed to two on Michael Cage’s dunk one-tenth of a second before the buzzer.

The Lakers, who had lost 11 of their previous 12 games, are 35-39 and have a three-game lead over Golden State for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff berth.

Sunday’s victory was their first over a team with a record of .500 or better since March 15.

“This was a big win for us,” said Threatt, who scored a game-high 25 points. “We’re excited because we were tough on the boards and tough defensively. Tonight, we played defense all the way to the end.”

Threatt’s biggest defensive contribution was on Perkins’ potential tying shot. “I had my hand in his face,” Threatt said. “(Earlier) Sam had said, ‘We’re going to win the game anyway,’ and that gave us a little incentive.”

A.C. Green, who had 20 points, stole the ball from Perkins to set up Threatt for the layup that put the Lakers ahead, 94-93, with 2:03 to play, and rebounded and tipped in a missed hook shot by James Worthy for a 96-93 Laker lead 20 seconds later.

“This was a good one, as sore as my body might feel right now,” Green said.

Green said he felt a mixture of nostalgia and competitiveness when he played against Perkins, which happened occasionally as the SuperSonics pulled frequent defensive switches.

“I tried to push him out of bounds, make sure the ball touched him last and kick him on the way down, whatever it took to win,” Green said. “The friendship is still there, but you’re out there to win.”

Pfund was encouraged by his team’s effort.

“Any win helps at this point,” he said. “Bad as it’s been and as tough a stretch as we’ve gone through, the guys have kept working hard to turn this thing around. Today was a good sign we can put it together, one we can rally around.”

Laker Notes

Byron Scott, who played only 12 minutes and remained on the bench for the final 19 minutes, said that he hopes Coach Randy Pfund “would go ahead and start Anthony (Peeler) and bring me in off the bench if he’s going to play me six minutes in the first quarter and six in the third. That doesn’t do any good.” Peeler had 11 points in 32 minutes Sunday. Told that Pfund had said moments earlier he doesn’t plan any major changes, Scott shook his head. “I wish he would go ahead and make the move, to be honest,” said Scott, who has played 27 minutes in the last two games to 57 for Peeler. Scott’s scoreless game Sunday was his first in two years. Said Pfund: “Anthony has had a good run of games here and I don’t want to change the lineup. I’ve thought this through. Byron has struggled a little bit, but we’ll see, in the next couple of games, if we can focus in and get him back on track. We need Byron. We need his long-distance shooting and his leadership.”