CK wroteIn a close game with little time left or at any time in a game , just more so in the prior rather than the latter, it seems that team A is penalized more by being moved further out from their own basket. Or maybe you can just call this smart defense.
Ball location isn't nearly the advantage in basketball that it is in football. Granted, some teams may have a tough throw-in play from under the basket, but any foul at the division line during such a throw-in is likely going to involve a throw towards the division line, indicating they weren't exactly using their genius throw-in play to begin with.
Obviously, the OP is a bit different in that it was before the TI pass was released. As tref noted, this may well be an intentional foul; or even possibly contact you want to pass on depending on whether it affects the play.