Injury

Vanessa Zamarripa, the Pac-12 Conference gymnast of the year, is a fifth-year senior at UCLA who has steadied the Bruins as three key team members suffered season-ending injuries. Hers was a voice of experience based on how she dealt with her own serious injury, a torn Achilles' tendon she sustained two years ago. "I'd be happy to give Kobe [Bryant] some tips," Zamarripa quipped Thursday before practice in advance of the 12-team NCAA championships that begin Friday at Pauley Pavilion.

TUCSON - While General Manager Ned Colletti tried to downplay the anticipated eight-week absence of Hanley Ramirez, Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly acknowledged he was concerned about the left side of the  infield. “To be honest with you, I'm not comfortable with anything that's going on at short right now,” Mattingly said. Luis Cruz or Dee Gordon will replace Ramirez at shortstop. Gordon is viewed as having a higher ceiling but also a lower floor. If the inexperienced Gordon is chosen, Cruz can play his more natural position at third base.

It was only a matter of time before Taiwan-based Next Media Animation took on Kobe Bryant's injury. A clip from the company loosely (and somewhat crudely) reenacts Bryant's season-ending Achilles' tendon tear, suffered Friday night in the Lakers' victory over the Golden State Warriors. On Saturday, Bryant underwent surgery to help repair the injury, which is expected to keep him out of action at six to nine months. The Next Media video shows a doctor shoving Bryant into a box that reads, "Here lies Kobe's career 1996-2013.

The Lakers are only two weeks into training camp, and there's yet another health concern. Lakers reserve forward Earl Clark will be out indefinitely because of a strained left groin, according to team spokesman John Black. The Lakers say they don't know what caused the injury. Clark, whom the Lakers acquired from Orlando as part of the Dwight Howard trade, has played a limited role. Through three preseason games, Clark has only averaged 0.3 points and 2.7 rebounds in nine minutes per game.

No longer do the Lakers face the nagging question of whether Andrew Bynum can stay healthy. It affected them for seven years as Bynum slowly but surely became an elite center. It left the training staff busily in finding ways to keep his creaky knees healthy. It left the Lakers' coaching staff exercising caution so another incident wouldn't occur. That's why the news that Bynum will sit out at least three weeks at the opening of Sixers training camp partly because of a bone bruise in his right knee sounded all too familiar.

Caron Butler will be in the starting lineup Saturday for the Clippers in Game 3 of the playoffs against the Memphis Grizzlies at Staples Center despite a fractured left hand, said sources who were not authorized to speak publicly on the situation. The decision was made after Butler practiced Friday and after he saw a hand specialist Thursday, the sources said. Butler, who is right-handed, did some shooting at practice with a brace on his hand. Butler was injured in the third quarter of Game 1 in Memphis on Sunday and the original diagnosis was that he would be sidelined four to six weeks recovering from the injury, putting his return in late May at the earliest.

Rajon Rondo may have gotten his last assist of the season. And he did so while wearing street clothes. The Boston Celtics point guard got an enthusiastic response from the crowd when he entered the arena at TD Garden during the second overtime of Sunday's game against the Miami Heat. Many of the fans already knew the news that an MRI had determined Rondo had torn his right anterior cruciate ligament, a season-ending injury. The players did not learn the extent of Rondo's injury until after the game.

Steve Blake said he had a breakthrough Wednesday in his recovery from injury, practicing three-on-three for the first time since suffering an abdominal tear in early November. "It gave me a little confidence to say, 'Maybe I can do it,' " said Blake after practice. "But then after you put yourself through something the first day, we'll see how I wake up tomorrow. We'll see if I can walk. " The Lakers guard has played in just seven games this season, averaging 5.1 points in 26 minutes a game.

  If you missed our live Google+ Hangout with Lakers writer Mike Bresnahan and Clippers writer Brad Turner, you missed some good conversation on our two local basketball teams, especially about injuries. Jordan Hill will not need the back surgery that Dwight Howard needed. He is week-to-week. Hill was sort of a quiet signing, lost in the shuffle of the signing of Steve Nash and the acquisition of Howard, but he is important to the Lakers because they are thin at center behind Howard.

Ben Roethlisberger left the Pittsburgh Steelers' game Monday night against the Kansas City Chiefs with a shoulder injury severe enough to send him to the hospital for further examination. Backup Byron Leftwich played just well enough to allow the Steelers to escape with a 16-13 overtime win. No. 3 quarterback Charlie Batch might suddenly become a popular guy among Pittsburgh fans if Big Ben isn't able to go Sunday night in a huge AFC North game against the Baltimore Ravens. Roethlisberger doesn't miss many games, so neither of his backups have gotten a whole lot of work while with the Steelers.