NBA CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES : SORE POINTS : Hamstring Injuries Are Easy to Acquire but Difficult to Get Rid Of or to Prevent

In cold, complex medical terms, Byron Scott and Magic Johnson are nursing injured biceps femoris tendons. In equally cold but easier-to-understand terms, it means the Lakers are simply hurtin’.

Down, 2-0, in their best-of-seven championship series against Detroit, the Lakers have been hamstrung by hamstrings. Their starting guards have injured ones.

Hamstring injuries are among the most common in sports, although that doesn’t make them any less painful. The hamstring is made up of three long tendons that sound like dinosaur names-- semitendinosus, semimembranosus and biceps femoris-- and are located behind the thigh, stretching from under the buttocks to past the back of the knee. The hamstring enables one to bend a knee, straighten a thigh and extend the hips.

Scott and Johnson are suffering from similar injuries to the left biceps femoris, although Scott’s partial tear is considered more serious than Johnson’s strain. The difference between the injuries is that Scott has torn fiber while Johnson has stretched his hamstring awkwardly without actually tearing it. It is unknown whether either will be available for Game 3 Sunday at the Forum.

“Having a torn hamstring is like having a rubber band that is partially cut,” said Dr. Clive Brewster, head physical therapist at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Inglewood. “If they play and tear it any further, the likelihood of them playing in the next few games is zero.”

Brewster said that victims of injured hamstrings are able to walk without a limp, but begin suffering great pain when they try to run or jump. Regardless of how limber one is, he said, there is no way to totally prevent a hamstring injury. Stretching exercises before strenuous activity may somewhat decrease the likelihood of injury but are no guarantee.

“It just happens,” he said. “It’s just bad luck.”

Johnson had similar bad luck Feb. 8, when he strained the same hamstring and was out for 16 days--five regular-season games and the All-Star break. Brewster said that Johnson’s first injury may have made him more susceptible to this one. He also said that there is no medication that could enable Scott or Johnson to play entirely without discomfort.

“To kill all the pain, the whole leg would have to go to sleep, and obviously an athlete can’t play that way,” he said.

Rest is the best remedy for such injuries, but with Game 3 one day away, Scott and Johnson can’t afford that luxury. Both are undergoing treatments, ranging from ice-downs to massages to electric shocks.

“Athletes,” said Brewster, “sometimes have to play with pain.”