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ByJanieMcCauley TheAssociatedPress OAKLAND Steve Kerr makes one thing perfectly clear: This special season is not about him. Far from it. Even if he is so per- fectly entwined with the record- setting Golden State Warriors and the Chicago Bulls group Kerr played for 20 years ago that just lost its all-time wins record to the team he now leads. Kerr will tell you he didn't even coach the first 43 games and that record 24-0 start, after all. And he wants Luke Walton to receive the proper credit for the initial, special stretch of the season before the Warriors' sec- ond-year coach returned Jan. 25 from a leave of absence, which began the first week of training camp in October following com- plications from two back surger- ies. Kerr jokes how easy he has had it this time around, with a deep lineup starring reigning MVP Stephen Curry and tri- ple-double machine Draymond Green. "We try to pick our spots. Over 82 games, a coach's voice gets old quickly, so fortunately Luke coached the first (43), so they didn't hear mine that of- ten," Kerr said in his usual good- natured tone. "But I think the thing we try to do is to not really worry about wins and losses. It's more how we're playing." Yet in recent weeks, Kerr faced constant questions about victories and chasing records — Golden State's pursuit of his old 72-10 mark with the 1995-96 Bulls, to be exact. While Kerr ac- knowledged being uneasy about putting so much effort into a goal other than winning a cham- pionship, he relented because of his players' desires. WARRIORS KERRENJOYINGTEAM MAKING NBA HISTORY DARRENABATE—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS The Golden State Warriors host the Houston Rockets on Saturday to start the playoffs. MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr played for the 1995-96Chicago Bulls that lost its all-time wins record Wednesday to the team he now leads. By Andrew Baggarly Bay Area News Group DENVER Water boils at a lower temperature here. A pitcher's breaking point comes quicker, too. So it happened for Matt Cain and the Giants in an 11-6 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Thurs- day afternoon at Coors Field. On a 73-degree day, Cain's first four innings might have repre- sented his most impressive work in three seasons. He displayed the combination of fastball ex- plosiveness and command that made him a front-line rotation presence for so many years. He even shaped his slider in the thin air for reliable strikes. Then came a fifth inning that rapidly escalated from slow sim- mer to grease fire. The Rock- ies scored nine runs, the most in an inning by a Giants oppo- nent in three years. Cain threw 38 pitches. Chris Heston threw 24 more. Buster Posey, who had just re- turned to the lineup after miss- ing two games with a bruised foot, sat in the squat and caught all 62 of them. No, there isn't a cold tub on the Giants' charter jet. Not yet, anyway. The series of mistakes and misfortune in the fifth inning proved too much to overcome as the Rockies took two of three in the series. The Giants allowed 21 runs on 31 hits while losing the final two games here. The timbre should change considerably on Friday at Dodger Stadium, when Mad- ison Bumgarner and Clayton Kershaw cross swords for the second time in seven days. But the Giants will not enter the series against their archrivals MLB Giants' pitchers lit up again by Rockies The Associated Press SACRAMENTO The Sacramento Kings fired coach George Karl on Thursday after his first full sea- son with the team, setting the stage for the team to hire its ninth coach since last making the play- offs in 2006. General manager Vlade Divac announced the move a day after the Kings wrapped up another disappointing season with a 33- 49 record. Karl was given a four- year contract when he was hired in February 2015 to replace Ty- rone Corbin but never worked out and finished with a 44-68 mark. "I feel bad doing this," Divac said. "But after what we experi- enced this year I thought we could do better and try to improve our team. I think George did a great job this year. But there was a part where there was a disconnect with the plays and the players so I made a decision to let him go." Karl was unable to improve the team's defense, had frequent run-ins with star center DeMar- cus Cousins and faced questions about his status as far back as No- vember. His fate was officially de- termined Thursday, leaving the Kings to search for a new coach to lead them into their new down- town arena slated to open next season. Karl is the eighth coach in Sac- ramento since the team last went to the playoffs in 2006 under Rick Adelman. Sacramento and Min- nesota are the only teams not to go to the playoffs in that span and the Timberwolves are the only team with more losses than the Kings the past 10 seasons. "There's no reason to blame George for all our failures this year," Divac said. "It's a lot of dif- ferent stuff from me and the play- ers. Just being in charge I felt like this is the first step in doing some- thing I want to make sure we're on the same page." The Kings have struggled for any stability, even after Vivek Ranadive bought the team from the Maloof family following the 2012-13 season and kept the fran- chise in Sacramento. Mike Malone was fired 24 games into his second season as coach despite a close relationship with Cousins and some improve- ment on the court. Corbin took over in December 2014 but lasted just two months before the team turned to the veteran Karl, who has the fifth-most wins all-time with a record of 1,175-824. But the man that hired Karl, former general manager Pete D'Alessandro, was replaced by Di- vac a few months after the move. Divac fired one of Karl's assis- tants, Vance Walberg, midway through this season and then parted ways with Karl. While the Kings won 30 games this season for the first time since 2007-08, they once again missed the playoffs as Karl failed to fix the problems on the court. The defense has once again been a major problem with the team al- lowing a league-worst 109.1 points per game and giving up an NBA- record 839 3-pointers. NBA Kings fire Karl a er 1 complete season The following are the results of the Junior High California High School Rodeo Association's ro- deos No. 7 and 8, held April 9 and 10 in Cottonwood. RodeoNo.7,April9 ALL AROUND COWBOY — Cole Bunting, Red Bluff 46 pts Reserve AA: Keith Johnson, Etna 41.5 2nd runnerup: Trent Watkins, Potter Valley 36 3rd runnerup: Clay Ames, Los Molinos 27 ALL AROUND COWGIRL — Miley Bunting, Red Bluff 37 pts Reserve AA: Hailey Myers, Fall River Mills 29 2nd runnerup: Addie Tilton, Greenville 26 3rd runnerup: Kamish Wagner, Red Bluff 24 BARREL RACING 18 entered 1 Reghan Shannon, Los Moli- nos 18.362 2 Kate Grimsman, Paskenta 18.465 3 Olivia Largent, Anderson 18.516 4 Shelby Dunning, Gerber 18.781 5 Lacie Banchio, Taylorsville 19.124 6 Kylie Daws, Etna 19.288 7 Harli Gomes, Etna 19.426 8 Addie Tilton, Greenville 19.457 9 Kelsey Lenardo, Montague 19.465 10 Kamish Wagner, Red Bluff 19.504 GIRLS GOAT TYING 12 en- tered 1 Miley Bunting, Red Bluff 12.19 2 Shelby Dunning, Gerber 12.55 3 Lacie Banchio, Taylorsville 13.42 4 Hailey Myers, Fall River Mills 13.73 5 Addie Tilton, Greenville 14.31 6 Kate Grimsman, Paskenta 14.34 7 Kamish Wagner, Red Bluff 14.57 8 Madison Ames, Los Molinos 16.22 9 Kylie Daws, Etna 19.92 10 Rosemary Balbiani, ? 20.71 POLE BENDING 18 entered 1 Miley Bunting, Red Bluff 22.115 2 Raci Roquemore, Cotton- wood 22.513 3 Hailey Myers, Fall River Mills 23.035 4 Shelby Dunning, Gerber 23.213 5 Kayla Brown, Montague 23.417 6 Addie Tilton, Greenville 23.490 7 Madison Ames, Los Molinos 24.190 8 Lacie Banchio, Taylorsville 24.405 9 Kamish Wagner, Red Bluff 24.546 10 Reghan Shannon, Los Moli- nos 27.004 GIRLS BREAKAWAY ROPING 10 entered 1 Reghan Shannon, Los Moli- nos 7.16 2 Kamish Wagner, Red Bluff 7.62 3 Kate Grimsman, Paskenta 8.98 4 Miley Bunting, Red Bluff 15.32 5 Hailey Myers, Fall River Mills 24.18 6 Addie Tilton, Greenville 24.37 TEAM ROPING 8 teams en- tered 1 Keith Johnson, Etna & Cole Bunting, Red Bluff 16.86 2 Clayton Moore, Bridgeville & Tyler Schorovsky, Los Molinos 21.06 3 Kamish Wagner, Red Bluff & Kyle Stewart, Janesville 21.42 4 Addie Tilton, Greenville & Ky- lie Daws, Etna 23.25 5 Shelby Dunning, Gerber & Cowboy Hammons, Corning 24.06 RIBBON ROPING 7 teams en- tered CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL RODEO RESULTS JuniorHighrodeosinCottonwood WARRIORS PAGE 2 GIANTS PAGE 2 RODEO PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, April 15, 2016 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1