Basketball On The Internet.

BOB'S CORNER: Boomers Olympic Bronze Medallist Joe Ingles tragically tore his ACL earlier this week as our website's US correspondent Bob Craven confirms in his weekly wrap up of all things in American basketball - and beyond - which readers may find interesting.

SADLY it’s official: Joe Ingles is done for the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

A key piece for the title-contending Utah Jazz, Ingles was driving to the basket in the second quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves when his left knee buckled in a non-contact incident.

The sickening moment saw the crowd go silent as teammates surrounded Ingles while he writhed around in pain on the court.

Joe will have surgery on it in the next couple of weeks, the Jazz have announced.  At 34 and out of contract at season's end, I wonder how much longer he will want to keep this up?

That said, he has certainly been playing well enough to keep going if he wants to.

Meanwhile fellow Aussies Patty Mills and Josh Giddey continue to have up and down seasons, but both lately have had upticks. 

In his most recent two games, both lossess, Mills scored 21 and 24 respectively, although in the most recent of those (24 points) his shooting from behind the arc was at 50% (6-of-12), but he was only 2-of-9 from closer in. 

In Giddey’s last game (also a loss), he had 15 points (7-of-15 from the floor, a distinct improvement over the norm for him), but he also had 10 rebounds and 5 assists, both of which led the team. 

And Josh Green of the Dallas Mavericks had more floor time than usual in a blowout loss, which resulted in a nice 12 points for him in more than 20 minutes.

His next game was also a loss, but only a squeaker—two points—but he got good results in this one, too:  11 points.  Continued double figures can only help get more minutes.

THE Houston Rockets are near the bottom of the NBA standings and the other day created some all-time negative history for themselves. 

They lost to the Portland Trail Blazers at home, thereby creating an all-time league record for futility.  The loss was Houston’s 10th straight at home by nine or more points, something no other team in league history has managed to do.

STEPH Curry of the Warriors, who had missed a number of games earlier in the season, is rounding, albeit slowly, back into form. 

In a recent game, he notched 40 points in a 122-108 win in Houston over the Rockets, 21 of those scored in the fourth quarter alone.   

The next night in San Antonio in the 2nd game of a back-to-back on the road, the Warriors rested all 5 starters from the previous night and played only with reserves—and still won 124-120 for their 7th win in a row, despite trailing by 17 at one point. 

That same night, Josh Giddey had a double-double in a 98-81 home win over the Blazers, scoring 14 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

THE pieces to possibly another WNBA championship puzzle for the Seattle Storm are rapidly falling into place. 

After being wooed hard by the NY Liberty, All-Star and former league MVP Breanna Stewart has now been signed for next season on a one-year deal valued at almost US$230,000. 

The Storm also resigned 3-time All-Star Jewell Loyd to a 2-year deal (terms not yet announced) and starting centre Mercedes Russell to a 3-year contract totaling US$480,000. 

Sue Bird, now 41, already announced she would return for a 19th season, rather than retire, and 13-year veteran guard and six-time all-defensive team player Briann January, a native of Washington state, has also announced she is signing with her home state team for her final year in the league.

Some hoops anniversaries from the last week in January:                                                                 

1960—Wilt Chamberlain sets a rookie scoring record with 58 points in a game.

1960—Danny Heater of little Burnsville high school in rural West Virginia scores 135 points in a 32-minute high school game.  He shot 53-70 from the floor and 29-41 from the free throw line.  He also grabbed 32 rebounds and dished out seven assists.  He scored 85 of those points in the second half alone (16 minutes), including 55 just in the last 10 minutes.  His 135 points is still the world record for high school and for professionals.  The college/university record is 138 set by Jack Taylor of Grinnell College in Iowa in 2012.

1964—The most lopsided high school game ever is played in Louisiana, USA.  The final score is 211-29

1965—The Sixers beat the Celtics 104-100 in Wilt Chamberlains first game with the Sixers after being traded to them by the SF Warriors.  Bill Russell of the Celtics goes 0-14 from the field in the loss.

1971—UCLA defeats UC-Santa Barbera 74-61, the start of their NCAA record 88-game winning streak.

1996—Magic Johnson scores 19 points, collects 8 rebounds and hands out 10 assists in a win over Golden State.  It’s his first game after an HIV-forced retirement of almost five years.

1998—Michael Jordan scores in double figures for the 800th consecutive game in a 100-98 OT win over the NJ Nets.  He would go on to add 40 more games through to the end of the season, after which he would retire for the final time.  He finishes his career on a streak of 840 not out, still the record.

2015—The Warriors beat the Sacramento Kings 126-101.  Klay Thompson of the W’s sets two NBA records in the game:  most points scored in one quarter (37) and most 3-point field goals in one quarter (9).

2018—James “The Beard” Harden has the biggest triple-double in NBA history:  60 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists.  He also added four steals and a block.

2020—In maybe the saddest day in NBA history, Kobe Bryant and his teenage daughter are killed in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles.

FOR those of us who remember and/or who really loved early rock’n’roll, this week marked the 63rd anniversary of that day the music died (thank you Don McLean). 

Feb. 3, 1959, a small plane chartered by Buddy Holly went down in a snow-covered field in the US Midwest shortly after taking off.  He and others were on a multi-town barnstorming tour, had just finished a show, and were heading out to the next stop. 

Holly, J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper), and Ritchie Valenzuela (Ritchie Valens) were all killed.  Waylon Jennings was supposed to be on the flight, but he had come down with the flu and dropped out.  Valens won (lost?) the coin flip to take his vacant seat.

My young, teenage self had seen all three of them in various shows not too long before this.  I still know most of the words to most of Holly’s hits, and after I started taking Spanish lessons at age 13, I was one of the few who knew the words to “La Bamba”. 

A very sad day, indeed, and proof yet again that I’m really old.