That call was as blatant as it can come, it was to ensure that the lakers won this game, no questions about it.
But I wouldnt say that the refs gave this game to the lakers from the beginning, for most part they were trying to keep the game close to make it entertaining. There were curious calls through out the game like the FT call on kobe on a first free throw miss by monta ellis, have never seen that happen on a first FT. The three second call on lamar defensively where maybe, a little bit maybe of his foot could have been on the lane, but he was within arms reach of the defender.
Interestingly, the players were taking it in the right way and I was really happy to see them play that way. The call on Kobe for FT violation, Baron was shaking his head as if to say bad call, the call on lamar on defensive three, the GS player there was also putting up his hand in disbelief. Many of the stupid calls players on both teams were laughing it off irrespective of who got the call. Fisher on the last call also said that he expected a no call and not an offensive foul. There was an offensive foul on stephen jackson where he pushed farmar on a screen and farmar was called for the foul, next time around stephen had a decent screen and I didnt see an offensive foul but was called for one.
It was all around sloppy refereeing like the three blind mice, but I am sure it wasnt a case of three blind mice, they really knew what they were doing, they are just setting up the pace for the playoff series. TNT and ABC can show replays of all these 4 games and say how interesting this series is going to be and how balanced these guys were during the regular season. However they would add that the X-factor would be that bynum and gasol did not play in the last two games and blah blah blah. For the common fan that should be intriguing enough I suppose