But skilled players can do it without making it obvious by looking “inexplicably bad.”
I recall, in that Netflix documentary, Hedake Smith talking about how he did this at Arizona State. He’d do subtle little things that the fans didn’t notice like delaying a pass for a split second so the D could catch up, or feeding teammates in spots where he knows they’re likely to miss, or just taking a step out of position on defense.
At the end of the day, it would look to the fans like Smith had a good game, ASU would still win (but not by point spread), and nobody had any idea that their star point guard was shaving points the whole game.