By Himself, Scott Is Too Much : Lakers: When Warriors back off, he scores 27 points and makes all five of his three-point attempts.

In an effort to stop the Lakers’ inside game, the Golden State Warriors sloughed off guard Byron Scott in order to double-team forward James Worthy and center Vlade Divac.

Left alone outside, Scott scored a team-high 27 points as the Lakers defeated the Warriors, 126-116, in the opener of their NBA Western Conference semifinals series before 17,505 at the Forum Sunday.

“They were so concerned about our people posting up that they backed off (Scott) to double on the post, so it gave him a lot of wide open shots,” Laker assistant coach Bill Bertka said. “If you don’t pressure him on the corner, he’ll shoot the lights out. It’s not that complicated a situation. There aren’t any secrets.”

The gamble backfired as Scott hit all five his three-point shots and made 10 of 15 shots overall.

Scott sensed he was in for a big game after sinking two of his first four shots.

“I could see that everything was in sync after the first three or four shots,” Scott said. “The basket looked as big as my swimming pool.”

Scott drowned the Warriors in the second half, when he scored 17 points. He made three three-point shots in the fourth quarter as the Lakers opened a 21-point lead.

“Byron got left alone outside and he was tough tonight,” Warrior guard Mitch Richmond said. “Byron hit all his shots on the break. We have to get back on defense.”

Magic Johnson compared Scott’s style to that of Warrior guards Tim Hardaway (who had 33 points) and Richmond.

“Byron’s like one of their guys,” Magic said. “He gets a lot of shots in transition. If you don’t find the guy in a hurry--they’ve got Hardaway, pulling up for three, Richmond pulling up for jump shot. . . . Byron is the same kind of player they are.”

The Lakers think Scott may be the key to the playoffs.

“He has to keep playing like that for us to advance in the playoffs,” Laker center Mychal Thompson said. “And I’m sure he will because he’s playing at a high confidence level. His confidence is way up if those jumpers just keep sinking for us.

“He keeps everybody honest because of his outside shooting. Teams can’t sag in and help on our deadly inside game. When Byron is hitting those jumpers, teams don’t know what to do. It seems like they’re on a merry-go-round just spinning around. They don’t know who to guard.”

Hamstrung by hamstring injuries the past two seasons, Scott would probably rather forget his performance in the playoffs in that time.

“It was very frustrating because I knew I couldn’t do the things I’m capable of doing,” Scott said. “I couldn’t run up and down the court and take the shots I normally take.”

Scott sat out the 1989 final against the Detroit Pistons with a pulled hamstring and the Pistons swept the Lakers. Assigned to check Phoenix guard Kevin Johnson in the Western Conference semifinals last season, Scott was embarrassed as the Suns eliminated the Lakers in five games. Scott, whose hamstring wasn’t completely healed, was unable to contain Johnson, who averaged a team-high 22 points in the series.

Scott remained injury free this season, playing in all 82 regular season games for the first time since 1986-87, and he has flourished in the playoffs.

Scott hit key shots in two games of the Lakers’ three-game sweep of Houston. In the first game, he made a jumper with 3.5 seconds left. In Game 3, he made a 17-footer with 54 seconds remaining to tie the game and added a 19-foot jumper with 16 seconds left to give the Lakers the lead for good.

“Just to be healthy is a moral victory in itself for me right now,” Scott said. “It’s much easier when you’re healthy. Last year the leg was giving out on me and by the third quarter I was dead. Right now it’s real strong and in the fourth quarter I feel real strong.”