I thought the refs sent a clear message to the teams and the home fans with the first play of the game, when they called Wallace for the illegal screen. I thought, "Oh, I see. That's how it's going to be." And it was. But I was not surprised. When Brandon got tackled to the floor, and you could see the ref signaling that it was a clean steal, I called my wife in to show her and said: "How can you tell the refs are not going to allow you to compete in a basketball game? Watch this." She was, as any decent human would have been, appalled.
Dallas was not just allowed to push off as needed on offense, they were pushing off on rebounds like the rule doesn't exist. And don't get me started on all the illegal picks they set.
Contrary to form, I actually do not expect Game 6 in Portland to suffer from biased refereeing. I expect it to be called pretty straight up, at least to the best of their abilities to do so. Let the best team win. If there is a Game 7, however, I fully expect a repeat of Game 1.
