NBA CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES : Spirit’s Willing, but Magic Can’t Ease Laker Burden : Johnson Will Be Examined Again, but Probably Won’t Play Tonight

History tells the limping Lakers they have no chance against the Detroit Pistons, that no team has recovered from a 3-0 deficit to win a National Basketball Assn. playoff series.

So, with the seeming inevitability of not winning a third consecutive title, it seems especially risky to the Lakers’ future for guard Magic Johnson to try again to play with a strained left hamstring.

Before tonight’s Game 4, starting at the Forum at 6, Johnson will be re-examined by Dr. Robert Kerlan. Afterward, however, Johnson probably will join hamstrung teammate Byron Scott on the bench instead of playing essentially on one leg, as he did for 4 minutes 46 seconds in Game 3 Sunday.

By playing, Johnson would risk further aggravation of the hamstring that he partially tore in February and the buildup of scar tissue that could make the condition chronic.

And Coach Pat Riley acknowledges that the NBA’s most valuable player simply cannot help the Lakers in his current state. Piston guards Joe Dumars, Isiah Thomas and Vinnie Johnson have combined for 70.3 points a game. Dumars has averaged 28.7 points, and Johnson would be easy to exploit.

“To be honest with you, I think he’d hurt our team,” said Riley, asked if Johnson will play tonight. “I think he knows that. You saw him move. His spirit is there, but we’d have to be covering up for him. That would be a burden.

“He’s not going to go past the point of tolerance. If his mobility is even 50% better than it was yesterday, it’s still something he couldn’t overcome.”

It would almost be a relief to General Manager Jerry West, who played with hamstring pulls in his time and says he knows the limitations, if Johnson called it a season.

“There’s always that danger, that question (of reinjury), even in the player’s mind,” West said Monday. “But I think players think a little differently now. There’s a lot more data and things available for players now in terms of training and conditioning.

“But with (Johnson’s) size and playing his position, it has to be more of a bother for him against their guards. They’d be pressuring him and banging him around. That, to me, would be the worst problem for him, make him more susceptible to aggravating the hamstring more.”

Johnson waved off several reporters on his way to the training room Monday--”I’m not nothing, so there’s nothing to say,” he said--but trainer Gary Vitti said he thought Johnson would play if given clearance.

“If we let him, he would go out,” Vitti said. “Pat pulled him out of the game (on Sunday), and I went down to Earvin because I knew that he wouldn’t pull himself out. He would limp up and down the court all day. So, I went down to him and said, ‘That’s it, isn’t it?’ He still wouldn’t say it. All he said was, ‘What do you think?’ ”

Vitti said there is no way of telling now how much scar tissue is surrounding Johnson’s hamstring, but added that each time he plays injured he increases the chance of more forming.

“If you have scar tissue, you don’t have that extension-ability--that’s the word we use,” Vitti said. “So, you are more prone to injuring a muscle that has scar tissue in it. He might not have the big lump of scar tissue at his hamstring, which you can feel on some people. We’re doing some things to try to prevent that from happening. Our fingers are crossed that his hamstring will be well for the rest of his career.”

So, for the rest of this season, the Lakers can be described as day to day.

The Lakers, what’s left of them, seemingly played as well as they could under the circumstances against the Pistons in Game 3, yet still lost by four points.

James Worthy assumed most of the offensive responsibility, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reverted to his 1984-85 playoff form, Michael Cooper played 48 unrelenting minutes, and Tony Campbell and David Rivers played up to, and perhaps beyond, their capabilities.

They cannot be expected to maintain that level, or even elevate it in order to pull out close games such as Sunday’s 114-110 loss and last Thursday’s 108-105 loss.

Or can they?

Encouragement for Worthy, who had his first strong offensive game in the series with 26 points Sunday, can be found in the fact that the Lakers lost Games 2 and 3 by a combined total of only seven points. In both games, the Lakers had chances to tie in the final seconds, but failed to execute.

“We played well enough to win, but then didn’t finish it,” Worthy said. “The games are going our way. We just couldn’t sustain it. I don’t think it’s (lack of) depth. Maybe it’s just unfamiliar situations for some of us and not realizing what to do without Magic at point guard.”

Riley’s faith, apparently, remains unswerving.

“You can be pessimistic, cynical, jaded, all those things, but it could be the greatest comeback in the history of the NBA,” Riley said. “That’s out there. That would open up some eyes. You can say whatever you want--we don’t have a chance; forget it; it’s over with--as long as we continue to believe we can win one game at a time, then we’ll still have that opportunity.

“One win would do a tremendous amount for us, and maybe do something for them. Give us one win, and you never know.”

The Pistons, making 53.8% of their shots and holding a 124-105 rebounding lead, don’t intend to do that.

After injuries had played a part in preventing the Pistons from holding a 3-2 lead over the Lakers in last season’s finals, they are are looking warily at their 3-0 advantage. “We are one win away,” Thomas said. “But we were one win away last year . . . “

But isn’t Thomas secure in the knowledge that no team has ever reversed a 3-0 playoff deficit?

“No, because they are the Lakers,” he said. “It’s just like playing the Celtics. Those two teams have made the routine out of the impossible.”

But without Johnson--or even with him in these days of injury--it almost seems impossible for the Lakers to be anything but routine.

THE LAST HURRAH?

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is still giving it his all. Mark Heisler’s story, Page 3.