player losing game on purpose just to come back stronger is unnatural behaviour. Either the player is told to play bad for a few games to stretch the series for more games or they get slowed down by reffing when they collect fouls quick and stop the momentum. Or simply the player has off nights, it happens.
But NO player does shyt like losing games just to build more fire up. No player is risking losing games to make fun of the opponents by giving them hopes. This aint no video game.
No player wants to have a long series on purpose, there is literally no reason to play shytty on purpose unless they are getting paid to do so.