Lakers Lose Record 8th in Row : Pro basketball: Peeler left unfulfilled because of injury as SuperSonics increase L.A.’s woes, 112-90.

The season that wasn’t is nearing the end for Anthony Peeler, the Lakers’ leading scorer until last week but hardly a leading man.

He has been on the injured list since Jan. 21 because of a stress fracture in his left leg, which came after opening the season on the injured list because of tendinitis in his right knee, which came after missing much of training camp because of the same ailment. Which is why, after a promising rookie campaign, his second season has been one giant pain in the potential.

“It was frustrating,” Peeler said Wednesday night at the Forum, where the Seattle SuperSonics sent the Lakers to a club-record eighth consecutive loss, 112-90, before 15,283. “I had so many expectations in the summertime. I wanted to do well for the team and myself.

“It gets frustrating because I wanted to play real bad. Now I just try to stay mentally focused and learn a lot about what other people are doing. I try to make my game better that way.”

Somehow, he managed to sneak in 30 appearances, all starts, and average 14.1 points, good enough to pace the Lakers before Vlade Divac recently moved ahead. In between, the Lakers went through three other starting shooting guards--Sedale Threatt, Tony Smith and Doug Christie--and Peeler had to be content watching from the sidelines.

“He’s our best creator,” Coach Magic Johnson said. “He’s the guy who can get his own shot without having someone set a pick or anything. Anthony is probably the most talented guy on the team. There’s the one problem--health.”

With Nick Van Exel back but out of the starting lineup after missing Tuesday’s game at Denver because of flu, Johnson opened with Threatt at the point and Christie at shooting guard. Threatt responded with a game-high 28 points, Christie had 16 and James Edwards, starting in place of the injured Divac, added 14.

Shawn Kemp led the SuperSonics, who have clinched the best record in the league and home-court advantage through the playoffs, with 23 points, 21 of them coming in the first half. Ricky Pierce contributed 22.

Laker Notes

The season might be over for Vlade Divac. X-rays taken Wednesday confirmed he suffered nothing more serious than a sprain in the fourth quarter the night before at Denver, but he didn’t play against the SuperSonics, his first miss since February of 1992, and has already been declared out for Saturday’s game at Golden State. That leaves the Sunday afternoon season finale against Utah at the Forum, and the Lakers list him as hopeful. . . . Antonio Harvey, released after three nights in the hospital, attended the game and said doctors gave him a clean bill of health despite failing to determine what forced him out of Saturday’s game against the Clippers with an irregular heartbeat. “If I wasn’t on the injured list, I could play right now,” the rookie forward said. “They said they couldn’t find anything abnormal with my heartbeat, the heart rhythms, anything.” Harvey will wear a monitor when he practices this summer--he may spend a few days next week with Magic Johnson and his touring team--so doctors can see what effect that has. Otherwise, he feels back to normal after a scary situation. “I thought about those guys--Hank Gathers, Reggie Lewis,” he said. “Of course those things come to mind. That’s why I said something.” . . . No Los Angeles Laker team had ever lost eight in a row before this. Where that ranks in franchise history is not immediately known because records from the Minneapolis days are hard to research.