Lakers Slip, Suns Complete Their Fall : Pro basketball: Ceballos’ 40-point homecoming goes for nil as Phoenix overcomes 15-point deficit in 119-114 victory.

Starting to lag as the race to their final regular-season goal reached the backstretch, the Lakers seemed to have found some help Saturday night. Someone to pace them.

They were aiming for 50 wins and Cedric Ceballos went from zero to 24 in two quarters, heading for 50 points. Charles Barkley, serving a one-game suspension, wasn’t even around to put up a roadblock.

They cruised along together . . . . and then stalled together. Ceballos went without a point the final 8:38 and without a field goal the last 10:03 and the Lakers lost a 15-point second-quarter lead while being overtaken by the Phoenix Suns, who claimed a 119-114 victory before 19,023 at America West Arena.

Ceballos, who came in averaging 24.7 points in three previous appearances against his former team, had 40 points and 11 rebounds while going 11 of 17 from the field, including a career-best seven of nine on three-point shots. The Lakers combined to make 15 three-pointers in 29 tries to set a franchise record and come within one of the NBA mark.

Welcome to their consolation prizes. In the end, they still had the first four-game losing streak of the season, with games coming up against Dallas, which beat the Lakers badly in Texas recently, Seattle and two with Portland.

The Lakers need to win three of those four to reach their goal of 50 wins. Which might be one reason they don’t consider it such an important milestone anymore.

“Maybe we should stop worrying about 50 wins and just play basketball,” Ceballos said.

Added Eddie Jones: “He hit it right on the head . . . . I think you do stop thinking so much about the 50 and just worry about the game for itself. I won’t say worry about the game. Just play the games.”

And, they hope, pick up a win along the way.

“We’re OK,” Coach Del Harris said. “There’s no reason to panic. There’s been a lot of teams that have gotten beaten here by Phoenix.”

It’s just that not many of them are potential first-round playoff opponents who lost so dramatically.

The Lakers, after all, did have that 64-49 cushion with 1:23 left in the first half, a lead that held up until midway through the fourth quarter.

Then they went under, fast.

With Dan Majerle scoring 19 of his team-high 28 points in the final period, the Suns went ahead, 105-104, with 4:55 remaining.

The Lakers reclaimed the lead on Jones’ three-pointer with 4:04 to go, but Phoenix responded from there with an 8-0 rally for an insurmountable 113-107 advantage with 2:19 left.

“We played two halves,” said A.C. Green, who contributed 21 points and 14 rebounds for the Suns. “First half, we wanted to wash that out as soon as we could. Second half, we came out and played the kind of basketball we need to to try and move on.”

Barkley earned his suspension Friday at Denver for what Sun Coach Paul Westphal called a “piddly little push”--a forearm shove that knocked Nugget Bryant Stith, no lightweight, to the court.

Official Steve Javie ruled it a flagrant foul, the sixth of the season against Barkley, making him--surprise--the first player to exceed the limit of five and be benched by the league office in the two-year history of the rule.

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Laker Notes

Nick Van Exel had 18 points and 15 assists. . . . Sedale Threatt sat out his third consecutive game because of a strained abdominal muscle. . . . Sam Bowie, who sat out two games because of a sore right knee in late March, still has some pain in the joint and will probably have surgery in the summer to determine the cause. The veteran center, an unrestricted free agent after the season, is still considering retirement. . . . The 24 points and 15 rebounds Wednesday at Sacramento was the 41st double-double of the season for Vlade Divac, setting a career high. Divac also has three 20-20s, more than any other player.

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* CHAMBERS MUSIC

Former Clipper Tom Chambers goes over the 20,000-point plateau to lead Utah past the Clippers, 105-83. C6