I did some googling...
"I'm not looking for a break," Sloan said. "I've always said, they should just try to be as consistent as possible, and I point out when they're not. I've never felt like I got an advantage. I felt like I got my emotions out."
That's good, his players say, because the theory that complaining to an official will earn extra consideration on future calls just doesn't hold. "In fact, I think they get mad at you, because they think you show them up," said Jazz forward Matt Harpring. "My experience is, if you get on them early," you'll regret it later.
"I think sometimes it has a negative effect," added assistant coach Phil Johnson. "If I was an official, it would."
http://archive.sltrib.com/printfriendly.php?id=3420296&itype=ngpsid
Donaghy himself only makes picks for the NBA, using his knowledge of the officials for each game. “I’m the only handicapper in the country who bases his picks on the refs,” he says. He’s successful roughly 60 percent of the time — that’s about five points higher than most professional gamblers, which means that in the world of sports gambling, the name Tim Donaghy is gold.
... (it would appear you're both right)
They discuss two NBA games, and Donaghy offers his thoughts about the referees managing each. One of them, he says, “can be controlled” — lobbied by a coach into giving favorable calls to that team. As it happens, that referee is officiating a game featuring an especially skilled lobbyist. He suggests betting on that coach’s team. The other game’s ref not only “can’t be controlled,” he won’t even give the home team a typical home advantage. Donaghy suggests picking against them. That night, both his picks covered their spread and were winners for him.
AND EVEN MORE EXPLOSIVE.....
Donaghy doesn’t much watch the NBA, and when he does he just studies video of the last few minutes of games that ended with a controversy. “I’ll look for a ref’s missed calls,” he says. “In a Cleveland game in March, a Cleveland player kicked the ball out of bounds but the ref missed it and gave the ball to Cleveland. Now after the game, when he sees video showing his mistake, it’ll affect the ref’s next game with Cleveland. He feels he owes that visiting team a call. So I look for that next Cleveland game with that ref and that same visiting team. Sometimes, too, if a coach complains about a ref to the media, that ref will want to stick it up his ass the next time he works that coach’s game.” Game 2 of this year’s finals is a good example — two calls late in overtime went against LeBron James, a phenomenon so unusual the announcers couldn’t stop talking about it. “LeBron James was clobbered on a shot and no whistle was called,” Donaghy tells me after Game 2 — calls the NBA later acknowledged the officials had missed. “There’s no logical reason for ref Tony Brothers not to call that foul. It could’ve cost Cleveland the game. Just like those two no-foul calls in overtime on jump balls. The league’s lucky Cleveland won Game 2 or those three blown fouls could’ve determined the series.”
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/06/tim-donaghy-gamblings-golden-boy.html
Guess Tony Brothers is not somebody Blatt should mess with....
EDIT: here's Brothers' record,
http://news.hotboxsports.com/NBA/official/48
you'll quickly note, he was at the Bulls game with the Rose miracle 3, a game where bulls shot 29 FTs to 19 by Cavs. Just saying...
http://www.nba.com/games/20150508/CLECHI/gameinfo.html
if you want to get ridiculously into it, they have stats for the refs at NBAstuffer
http://www.nbastuffer.com/referee_stats