Lakers Fade at Finish : Pro basketball: L.A. loses third in a row as Sacramento pulls away in fourth quarter, 109-99.

Fourth-quarter earnings, once a centerpiece of their impressive and growing portfolio, have diminished for the Lakers, if not disappeared.

Wednesday, given a chance to make up for the missed opportunity at Utah the night before, they instead saw another game slip away. That the 109-99 loss to the Sacramento Kings happened at Arco Arena, where they have lost five consecutive games, only compounds the pain.

The Lakers had made the fourth quarter their own this season, as Coach Del Harris liked to point out with regularity. Now, they’ve dropped back-to-back games, to the Jazz and Kings, after being outplayed by the opposition in those final 12 minutes.

“Whatever,” Harris says now, after the Lakers lost their third in a row despite 24 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists from Vlade Divac. “You’re not going to win ‘em all.”

It’s just that the Lakers, one of the best teams in the league at taking care of the ball, aren’t used to losing any of them this way.

Trying to win here for the first time since Feb. 24, 1993, they clawed back from an eight-point deficit in the third quarter to earn a 94-94 tie with 4:14 left. It was even again at 96-all with 2:45 to go, before the roof caved in.

The Kings got three shots the next possession, capped by Olden Polynice’s tip-in. Even Polynice missing both free throws the next trip down turned bad for the Lakers--Brian Grant couldn’t control for Sacramento, but he swatted the ball outside to teammate Randy Brown, a blow L.A. survived only when Mitch Richmond was called for an offensive foul.

So how did the Lakers take advantage?

Cedric Ceballos, about 18 feet from the basket, tried to get the ball to Eddie Jones, but instead lost it into the hands of Walt Williams, who threw a lead pass to a streaking Brown. That became a three-point play when Brown made the layup while being fouled by Ceballos, then converted the free throw.

“I passed it before I got it,” Ceballos said.

Divac turned it over on the next possession, and it was 101-96 with a minute to go, an insurmountable deficit, even after Nick Van Exel’s three-point basket cut the King lead to 102-99 with 32 seconds showing.

“We didn’t perform at the end,” Harris said. “We didn’t make the big plays and they did. That’s what it comes down to.”

Added Van Exel: “I thought we came out ready to play tonight. They just got us in the end.”

By improving to 37-39, the Kings not only moved a half-game ahead of idle Denver for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West, but tied their Sacramento-era record for victories in a season

“You could put a circle around this game as a must-win,” King Coach Garry St. Jean said. “We had to get this one at home, and gosh, we played hard. I was really proud of our guys.”

Polynice led the Kings with 27 points and 16 rebounds.

Laker Notes

A day after Nick Van Exel was ejected at Utah, Coach Del Harris said he talked to his second-year point guard about better controlling his emotions. Van Exel’s absence for about the final 1 1/2 quarters was magnified because the Lakers were already without Sedale Threatt because of injury, forcing them to go the rest of the way against John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek without a true point guard. As it turned out, Tony Smith, normally a swingman, played well in that role and helped rally the Lakers from a 15-point deficit into a tie before they lost. “He’s so competitive and emotional that it may be a while before he doesn’t do it again,” Harris said of Van Exel. “So you live with that. Our whole team has a lot of emotion, a lot of heart, a lot of drive. You go through that. I don’t want them to lose their emotion.” He added: “I’d prefer that they’d let me handle the referees. But a lot of times, they don’t think I’m aggressive enough on them (the officials).”

Threatt missed his second game in a row because of a strained abdominal muscle, getting Smith more time at the point. Threatt is day-to-day, but might play in the next game, Saturday at Phoenix. . . . The Lakers will commemorate the 10th anniversary of their 1985 championship team, one that holds a special place in team history because it was the first to beat the Celtics for the title, at halftime of the April 22 regular-season finale at the Forum. Almost every player from that team--including Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and Michael Cooper--is expected to attend. Coach Pat Riley, now with the Knicks, and Byron Scott, now a Pacer, may send video messages.