Ceballos Sits Out Last Shot : Pro basketball: Pacers win, 106-105, then Lakers’ leading scorer declares his unhappiness.

Word was getting around faster than if he had whispered it to Connie Chung. By the end of the night, after he had been reduced to an afterthought during the Lakers’ 106-105 loss to the Indiana Pacers, those who could not see it in his face heard it in his voice.

“I’m not having fun,” Cedric Ceballos said Wednesday night. “I haven’t been having fun the last five games.”

He probably isn’t alone--the Lakers have lost three of those five and played poorly in one they did win. Maybe the roof really did cave in that night at Portland, when the main event in the 46-point loss to the Trail Blazers was the so-called miscommunication between Nick Van Exel and Del Harris, and the undercard was Ceballos being disappointed about playing only 21 minutes. That was five games ago.

This time, before 14,061 at Market Square Arena, Ceballos made only three of 10 shots, played only 30 minutes and was on the bench for the final 6:52, during which time the Lakers rallied from an eight-point deficit and briefly took the lead. When it was time to draw up a play during a timeout with 23 seconds remaining and the Lakers trailing by one, his status as the team’s leading scorer meant nothing.

Van Exel--on another great run while scoring 16 of his game-high 30 points in the fourth quarter--Vlade Divac, Eddie Jones, Tony Smith and George Lynch were in. Ceballos was out. So, soon enough, was Smith’s open 18-footer with about three seconds left, sealing the defeat.

“When I saw Van Exel driving, I had no choice but to give help,” said Pacer Byron Scott, who was assigned to Smith. “When he kicked it out, I knew there was no way in the world I could get back to it, so the only thing I could hope was that Tony would be Tony and miss.”

Scott was joking with his former teammates more than ripping them.

Ceballos? He was in no mood to kid around.

“Nothing is really wrong,” he said. “I’m just not having fun. And it shows. I don’t look like I’m having fun. I don’t feel like coming to games. I don’t feel like coming to practices.

“I’m dreading coming to games. I’m dreading coming to practices. I might as well just quit. I might as well retire.”

He was kidding, presumably.

“I don’t know,” Ceballos said. “Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m the problem.”

If that’s the case, he is not alone. The real problems Wednesday were Derrick McKey (24 points), Reggie Miller (19 points, including four three-pointers) and Scott, who made four of five free throws down the stretch en route to 14 points in 21 minutes off the bench. So many of the makes, from the line and the field, were punctuated with stares at the Laker bench.

“I have fun every time I play,” Scott said. “But I had a lot more fun tonight than I’d had in a long time.”

Thanks. The Lakers needed that.

*

Laker Notes

Veteran guard Lester Conner announced his retirement after the game, just as his 10-day contract expired. Conner, 35, said he decided to call it quits last Friday, during the game against Golden State at the Forum, when he saw Ryan Lorthridge playing for the Warriors after being called up from the Continental Basketball Assn. “He must have been elated to be there, even on a 10-day,” Conner said. “I figured I must be in the way of somebody else who just wanted the chance to be able to say they played in the NBA. And the game has passed me by. It’stime.”

The Lakers now probably will bring in someone else in the next few days, but they didn’t feel he was in the way--Coach Del Harris wanted to sign Conner to a second 10-day contract today in hopes that Sedale Threatt would be ready to return from the injured list by the time that ran out. Conner, a first-round draft pick with the Warriors in 1982, had also previously played with Houston, New Jersey, Milwaukee, the Clippers and Indiana.

Eddie Jones was pleased to be named to play in the rookie all-star game but would rather have had the time off for a midseason break. “Basically, I would have,” the Lakers’ shooting guard said. “It’s an honor to be selected to a team like that, but all those all-star teams don’t mean a thing to me. It’s about team goals.” Jones was also invited to the dunk contest,but, after originally accepting, changed his mind when a bruised hip continued to bother him.

Mark Jackson is out of the Pacers’ starting lineup. Coach Larry Brown, who pushed for the Jackson trade after the two were together with the Clippers, has gone with Haywoode Workman the last two games in hopes that Indiana would get off to better starts. . . . Indiana played without center Rik Smits, who had an upset stomach.

*

Lakers On-Line

* The TimesLink on-line service has player bios, team history, the ’94 season schedule and team notes supplied by the Lakers, as well as a collection of Times feature stories. Sign on and “jump” to keyword “Lakers.”

Details on Times electronic services, A12