Quote Originally Posted by ninephive
When Westbrook or Durant want to be fouled, they can get one almost every single play. This is why Westbrook particularly has so many wild shots. On the rare occasion that he doesn't actually get the whistle when he's trying, it becomes evident that he actually wasn't trying to score. How else do you explain over-the-backboard 3-pointers at the end of a game or layups that miss the basket by 10 feet? This year they have both (WB & KD) been vey smart about forcing the refs to blow the whistle at the end of close games and it's worked.

On the other side of the ball, you see the physicality they're allowed to play with. You see it with their bigs going over the back often and then them holding players when they try to run around screens. You saw this with Curry the other night where he was held by 3 or 4 different players when running his loop. The same happened with Parker, especially in 2012. Once that 80's/90's style defense is allowed on one end of the court for multiple games (even though it's been called all season), you start having to change your approach mid-series and for the Spurs (and I'm seeing it with the Warriors now too), it's completely demoralizing. They literally look like completely different teams, not sure how to move on offense without getting held and with no clue whatsoever what to do on defense knowing that if you are in the vicinity of these guys, they're going to flail and get a whistle.
This is the same kind of game rigging that FIBA does whenever Team USA plays any game, against any other team. Team USA is always allowed to play like the 90s Heat/Knicks, while the opposing team cannot even look close at Team USA without getting called for fouling.

This type of game fixing is guaranteed and infallible. The team being favored in this way by the refs, is always going to win the game. And it takes people that are very astute in basketball to grasp what is even happening.