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To believe that Cuban's incessant lobbying does not have any effect on how the game is called is a bit naive, imo. I certainly do not believe the officials "cost the game", nor do I believe they are purposely trying to appease Cuban  , but if an owner submits a barrage of reports throughout the season to document bad calls and is willing to pay through the nose in order to complain, then you can bet that may very likely mean the officials tend to be a 'bit more' on their toes to avoid bad calls against the Mavericks.
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I definitely second that as I feel that the officials are more cautious of their calls because of Mark Cuban. That's the effect of what money can give you. That one bit of cautiousness can make a HUGE DIFFERENCE IN ONE OF THEIR MANY DECISION MAKING THROUGHOUT THE GAME.
Is no doubt the Mavs are outplaying the Spurs. Think about it, the Spurs are "trying" to match up with the Mavs and they have not found an answer for all of the Mavs scoring. By not playing their centers (Mohammad and Rasho Nesterovic) they are missing a lot of shot blocking inside. Throughout game 4, all i can think of is Howard and Stackhouse being able to score pretty much anywhere on the court. And not to mention that the Spurs seems to struggle with the offense. They had a chance to win it the very last play before OT but they chose to give the ball to Duncan down low. Wouldn't it be more effective to have Parker drive the ball and create something since that seems to got them going in the entire game instead of giving it to an injured and tired Duncan? Call it bad coaching, bad reffing, or what, the Spurs are definitely not playing very "Spurs-like".
Whether Cuban has an effect to the officiating or not, I definitely see that the Mavs are outplaying the Spurs in every way. The Spurs will very likely to lose this series if they don't step up their game!