You obviously never watched Game 6 of the 2002 Kings-Lakers series.As long as the Lakers/Lebron are there,it dont matter who the East team is....Lebron is the sure thing ratings wise.As a ref you can take away foul shots and impact a game you cant do nothing when a team makes shots and thats what happened in game 7 vs LAC nothing the NBA could do about it LA went ice cold and Denver were making shots....Only chance you can influence a game is fouls when it turns into a slugfest late...and thats what happened in tonights game.
It turned into a HC shyt show for both teams and almost all 50 50 calls went in favor or LAL.
Thats how a game is manipulated.
As long as the ball is still getting inbounded, the refs can do something about it.