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JEFFROBERSON—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS San Jose Sharks center Patrick Marleau controls the puck as St. Louis Blues goalie Brian Elliott defends the goal during the third period in Game 1of the Stanley Cup Western Conference finals, Sunday in St. Louis. ByCurtisPashelka BayAreaNewsGroup ST.LOUIS TheWesternConferencefi- nal between the Sharks and St. Louis Blues is taking place in the middle of an election cycle. So perhaps it made sense that the politicking would ramp up a notch Monday on the eve of an important Game 2 at Scottrade Cen- ter. There was campaigning for more penalty calls on the Blues by the Sharks' Pete DeBoer, and a one-man rapid response team in the form of St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock, who shot back at those suggestions and wondered if DeBoer was "whining for calls." Itall underscoreshowbigarole spe- cial teams figures to play in the out- come of a close series, as the Sharks went 0 for 3 on the power play in Sun- day's Game 1, and the Blues went 1 for 2 in their 2-1 victory. Late in the first period Sunday, Sharks center Joe Thornton and St. Louis captain David Backes tugged at each other's beards in an unusual exchange. No penalties were called. Asked if he makes any coaching points regarding these situations or if he relies on his players to work it out among each other, DeBoer said, "What we're relying on are the offi- cials to do their job. "St. Louis is one of the most penal- ized teams in the league, regular sea- son and playoffs. They need to call the game accordingly we need to make them pay a price for being one of the most penalized teams in the league on the power play, which we didn't last night." St. Louis has been shorthanded 42 times in 15 playoff games and have 163 penalty minutes in the playoffs, second only to Tampa Bay's 186. The Blues were ninth in the NHL in the regular season with 861 penalty min- utes. Told that DeBoer, for the second straight day, mentioned the Blues as being a heavily penalized team, Hitchcock asked, "What are you say- NHL PLAYOFFS Coachesdiscusspenalties Hitchcocksays'we'renotgoingtowhineforcalls' By Janie Mccauley The Associated Press OAKLAND Kevin Durant scored 26 points and made a key 17-foot jumper with 30.7 seconds left, and the Oklahoma City Thunder handed the Golden State Warriors their first home loss of the playoffs with a 108-102 victory in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals Monday night. Russell Westbrook scored 24 of his 27 points in the second half for Oklahoma City, which trailed 60-47 at halftime. Westbrook also had 12 assists and seven steals in the opener of the Thunder's fourth West finals in six years. "We've just got to compete," Westbrook said. "It's going to be a tough game. It's a tough building. They have a lot of great players on their team, but I know we're a great team and when we put our minds to it, tonight we didn't play our best game and we came out with a win." Game 2 is Wednesday night at Oracle Arena. If this one was any kind of preview of what is com- ing, this should be a dandy of a series between the NBA's high- est-scoring teams from the reg- ular season. Steven Adams made a pair of free throws for Oklahoma City with 1:01 remaining, and Klay Thompson missed a reverse lay-in moments later on the other end. MVP Stephen Curry had 26 points and a playoff career-high 10 rebounds, but the Warriors missed too many shots down the stretch. NBA PLAYOFFS WARRIORS LOSE GAME 1 AT HOME Golden State suffers first home loss in playoffs Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook shoots against Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut and forward Draymond Green during the first half of Game 1of the Western Conference finals Monday. PHOTOS BY JEFF CHIU — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry is defended by Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook during the second half of Game 1of the Western Conference finals in Oakland on Monday. The Thunder won 108-102. By Ronald Blum The Associated Press NEW YORK Hall of Famer Joe Morgan knows that for more than a century, baseball players have policed themselves. Like it or not. Seven months after Jose Bau- tista's famous bat flip against Texas in the AL playoffs, he got hit by the Rangers and re- sponded with a hard takeout slide that led to a brawl Sunday. "If you were willing to show the other team up and to do that, then you've got to be will- ing to take what goes with it," Morgan said Monday. Baseball is likely to issue dis- cipline on Tuesday for the week- end fight, which led to six of the eight ejections in Toronto's 7-6 loss. It was the last meeting of the regular season between the teams, and Bautista was facing the Rangers for the final time when rookie Matt Bush opened the eighth inning with a 96 mph fastball that hit the slugger on the left arm and ricocheted off a thigh. Plate umpire Dan Iassogna warned both benches, and Jus- tin Smoak bounced to third with one out. Bautista slid hard and late into the right leg of sec- ond baseman Rougned Odor and 8 feet past second base. Odor shoved Bautista with both hands, then threw a punch to his jaw that made Bautista's head snap back, causing his sun- glasses and helmet to fly off. Dugouts and bullpens emptied. Fans chanted "U-S-A! U-S-A!" and "Let's Go Rangers!" while also maligning the Blue Jays. By the time the game resumed nine minutes later, Smoak was called out for an inning-end- ing double play, Bautista, Odor, Toronto third baseman Josh Donaldson and Texas bench MLB Pl ayers police unwritten rules for acceptable conduct PALOCEDRO The Red Bluff Spar- tans baseball team was just shy of a second playoff win Friday over the Foothill Cougars that would have sent them to Chico a week later for a section final, but ended up with a split that means a rub- ber match Tuesday in Red Bluff. The Spartans handled the Cou- gars in the opening game 6-2 after going up early and tacking on in- surance late in the game. The sec- ond game in the best-of-three se- ries saw Foothill get up by 3 runs early before the Spartans tied it up in the third and fourth. The Spartans put up 2 in the seventh and just needed to shut down the Cougars in the bot- tom half to advance. But a pair from the cougars and another in the eighth gave Foothill the win, forcing Tuesday's home game in Red Bluff. In the opener, Kolby Button went 2-4 with two doubles, a run and an RBI; Tanner Tweedt was 2-4 with a double and an RBI; Eric Spencer was 1-3 with 2 RBI and Payton Edwards was 1-4 with a double and 2 runs. Button got the win, giving up 2 earned on 5 hits with 3 walks and a strikeout over 5 innings. Lane Pritchard got the save, giving up a walk, no hits and striking out 2 in 2 innings. In the second game, Pritchard was 3-4 with 2 doubles, 2 runs and an RBI; Ryan Gamboa was 2-4 with a double and a run; Owen Swarthout was 1-1 with a run; Edwards was 1-4 with a double and an RBI; Button was 1-4 with a double and an RBI and Austin BASEBALL Sp art an s' split with Foothill By Janie McCauley The Associated Press The Los Angeles Angels are closing in on a deal to sign two- time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum, a free agent trying to come back from hip surgery, ac- cording to a person with knowl- edge of the negotiations. The person spoke to The Asso- ciated Press on Monday on condi- tion of anonymity because no deal had been announced. Lincecum tossed 41 pitches on May 6 for about three dozen scouts representing nearly ev- ery major league club in Scotts- dale, Arizona, the spring train- ing home of the San Francisco Giants. That's the only team the 31-year-old right-hander has ever pitched for. Lincecum won the NL Cy Young Award in 2008 and 2009 and made four All-Star Game appearances. He helped the Gi- MLB Angels closing in on deal to sign Lincecum Former Giants pitcher had hip surgery last year BASEBALL PAGE 2 SHARKS PAGE 2 CONDUCT PAGE 2 LINCECUM PAGE 2 WARRIORS PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, May 17, 2016 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1