Eddie’s Ready, Lakers Aren’t : Pro basketball: Jones returns from thumb injury, but Sacramento comes back from 16-point halftime deficit at Forum, 99-98.

The return of Eddie Jones on Friday night was nothing compared to the return of the Sacramento Kings.

The Lakers and their second-year guard, back after 6 1/2 weeks on the shelf because of a torn thumb ligament, are joined in recovering from wounds. Jones’ was administered by corrective surgery, the team’s by the Kings, who came back from 16 points down at the half to win, 99-98, before 16,343 at the Forum.

“Another tough one to lose,” Coach Del Harris said after the Lakers lost at home by a point for the second game in a row. “We really continue to make the same mistake. We get rich with a lead and we feel we have to give money to everybody.

“We had a 16-point lead in the third quarter, then we gave up 19 fast-break points. You just can’t do that. It shows a lack of intensity, a lack of energy and just carelessness.”

It also shows a 6-6 record.

“We pulled the string a little too early,” said Cedric Ceballos, who had 23 points and 11 rebounds. “We conceded the win a little too early.”

The huge lead was gone before the end of the third quarter. Once in the fourth, Mitch Richmond’s three-point jumper with 1:04 remaining broke a 95-95 deadlock, which held up when Sedale Threatt’s three-point shot for another tie bounced off the rim with about seven seconds left.

The Kings got their final point on Tyus Edney’s free throw with 2.2 seconds to go, the last of his 17 points in his first pro game in Los Angeles. That was a big factor in beating his favorite boyhood team, not to mention overshadowing a rusty Jones, who made one of five shots and had four points in 13 minutes.

“It feels great,” said Jones, reporting no pain around the left thumb. “Just the loss. That’s the only bad feeling I’ve got.”

The decision to activate Jones, at the expense of rookie Frankie King’s going on the injured list with back spasms, was the easy part. The next should be much tougher: when to put him in the starting lineup and return Anthony Peeler to a reserve role.

Harris is noncommittal when, or if, such a move will take place. But it’s clear the Lakers want to get major minutes for their best backcourt defender and one of their premier offensive weapons, even if Peeler has been playing well while averaging 12.1 points and shooting 48.8% heading into Friday’s game.

The Laker coach is, of course, aware of how a similar Jones-for-Peeler situation went bad last season, when Jones returned from a lengthy absence because of a shoulder injury and Peeler disappeared from more than the opening lineup. More specifically, Peeler went from 17.3 points and 46.7% in 33.6 minutes over 24 consecutive starts to 10.5 points and 37% in 20.7 minutes the final 10 regular-season games. Even getting the No. 1 job back for the playoffs could not provide a spark.

“Let’s don’t take what happened one time as something that has to happen every time,” Harris said.

“We shall see what we shall see. We’ll just play it. We need both of them, that’s all I know.”

Laker Notes

Friday marked the first time the Lakers had their preferred nine-man rotation healthy for a full game since Dec. 30--a span of 77 contests counting the playoffs. The only other time they went into a game at full strength was the April 27 playoff opener at Seattle, where Sedale Threatt played 11 minutes and then re-injured his abdominal muscle. . . . George Lynch, who went from starting at small forward to getting 23 minutes the next four games after being replaced, has resurfaced as a key element in the Lakers’ small lineup. He went into the Sacramento game having averaged 15.8 minutes the previous four outings, including 23 against the Clippers on Sunday, when he spent some time defending a true power forward, Loy Vaught, and finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. Five of those boards were on offense. His other matchups, next to either Vlade Divac or Elden Campbell at center, have included other bigger players such as Portland’s Clifford Robinson, Vancouver’s Antonio Harvey and Sacramento’s Brian Grant. “George has been overlooked a little bit because he got off to that slow start,” Coach Del Harris said. “But I’ve been very satisfied with George’s work.” Said Lynch: “I just want to be out there. We’re playing well and the guys are playing hard on defense. I just want to be part of it.”