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I'll just throw this out for any comment... I've always enjoyed the concept of officials going to the courtside TV monitor at the end of a half or at the end of the game, to see if a tiny bit of time back should be put on the game clock. I've seen this several times over the last few years. A ball will fall out of bound with some tiny amount of time remaining on the clock, and the officials will go over to the monitor to see when the ball hit the floor when compared to the clock. This is for purposes of perhaps putting more time on the game clock.
The action assumes that the official timekeeper has been perfectly accurate to the tenth of a second all the way through the half. Why else would it matter to the tenth of a second what the clock says before ball goes out of bounds? But it then also assumes that when the ball falls out of bounds right at the end of the half, the timekeeper's accuracy during those few seconds should be scrutinized, and usually changed. In essense this scenario presupposes that the timekeeper has been absolutely accurate all the way through the half, except for the half's last few seconds.
It would be more logical to allow the timekeeper's level of accuracy (or inaccuracy) to play-out all the way through the game, so both teams are submitted to the timekeeper's methods of timekeeping maintainence through the whole game.
I think the official timekeeper is scrutinized throughout the game, not just at the end of halves. Officials often are adjusting the official clock during the game, not at the end of halves.
It's possible that it appears like more scrutiny is applied at the end of halves because it is often the amount of time left will determine if there is one or two possessions remaining.
Also, the game is played differently at the end of a game. For example, there normally are no intentional fouls during the first 98% of a game. The game often comes down to seconds on the clock and an extra possession.
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