[bucky]

I have to respectfully disagree with the idea that the official(s) could not do something different. This play mostly reminds me of my soccer officiating days but I do also apply some things currently in basketball to prevent this type of stuff.

Verbal guidance may have prevented all of this. Typically, in games like this with the outcome decided, I can read the body language of the players, especially the ones that tend to make poor decisions. As the player was dribbling out the clock, the official easily could have been saying "games over, be smart", "no foul", "easy", "just hold it", etc. After the steal, I would have been nearly yelling "let him go" or "no, no, no". Anything to verbally assist the knuckleheads when the game is out of reach.

Maybe the ref was doing that but that certainly did not appear to be the case. In fact, Higgins go in the way. He was relaxed (as we all probably would have been) but he could have been in better position by eyeballing the defender.