I think if the league is rigged, its probably more for point shaving and point differentiation than actually deciding wins and losses. But who knows really. What I do know is that, watching these games, determining the right call is hard. Too many factors to consider, and they are all happening in real time. Gotta watch the feet, the arms, the legs. Where are they on the court? Then you gotta watch the contact: the screens, the low post position battles,etc. You got refs at different angles, but all of this stuff is happening at once.
I know from my point of view, I judge the game quite a bit worse than they do. And yea they're professionals, I get that. But there's a lot of nuance to being a referee(i.e. 50/50 contact situations). And also a lot of minute rules you dont catch from being a basketball layman that they know. Reviewing crucial plays help(but that cant cover nearly everything that may need reviewing because that takes too long), and even with that we can still make mistakes. All im saying is that the NBA, or a lot of basketball in general, is difficult to put under perfect scrutiny(i dont mean scrutiny as in "scolding" but as in referee discretion). So sometimes they get calls wrong, because,well, they got the call wrong. Also, home cooking does exist. And star bias. That goes for any team, regardless of market or affiliation.
To be fair, the reason why the refs swallow their whistle at the end of games, specifically THIS GAME, is because if they put the game under higher scrutiny, they might play a bigger part in determining the outcome of the game, specifically by getting a call wrong. And the refs are scrutinized enough as it is. Would you rather the refs no call and wave off 50/50 contact, or get more whistle happy and allow a team to win the game on free throws?
Neither of those situations in OT were determined fouls and they shouldn't have been.
