Hall of Fame fustration

I'm so fustrated playing NBA 2k12 on Hall of Fame mode! I've been playing quick game mode using default sliders and default game style. I usually can get a lead heading either the 2nd quarter or 3rd quarter. Then all a sudden either in the 2nd quarter or 3rd quarter the whole game changes. It almost seems like the game turns on a cheat mode where the CPU opponent will go on a huge run. The opponent guards seem to get open because my players get stuck jacking off in the paint and start hitting consecutive threes in a row. If I play good defense and the CPU misses a shot, the CPU somehow always gets the offensive rebound and gets a score. Or if i play really good defense and there's only one second remaining on the clock, the CPU somehow hits these crazy turnaround fadearound shots with a hand in his face. And I should mention the steals. During this huge run, the CPU somehow gets tons of steals too and my players will make silly passes that hit the back of the opponent which result in a steal.

I don't mind if the game is challenging but if the CPU gets this unfair advantage, this game is a piece of shit.

That remains the problem in basketball video games; on the hardest difficulty level, the challenge doesn't come from the CPU playing smarter and to the best of the abilities of the team and players it's controlling, but rather through enjoying an unfair advantage and brutal comeback logic. Sometimes it's preferable to play on the second highest difficulty and tweak the sliders to ramp up the challenge manually.

opponent guards seem to get open because my players get stuck jacking off in the paint

Lol thank you, made a good day better.

you could leave it on HOF level and edit a few in game sliders so that there is not such an outrageous advantage.
I tweeked the computers Def Awareness -4 pts and tweeked user off awareness +2 , computer steal ability -3, computer 3pt shot -5

when tweak the in game sliders and lowering them this means the lower tier players will not play beyond thier abilities. An example is Westbrook is a great athletic PG but his weakness is turnovers by lowering the Ball security rating of the cpu by 4 or more you will see a difference between a great ball handler and a mediocre one such as Westbrook. This type of thing makes a difference when play on HOF because you shift some control back to you and the computer is not just over using unrealistic advantages that it should not have any way. The best part is reducing some of those in game sliders of the cpu will not affect better players as much. Stars will still do what they do best unless you turn the sliders way down

The frustrating thing for me is HOF is too hard, while Superstar is too easy.

On HOF it's very hard to score. The CPU goes on the big runs and even bad teams hold my team (with Jordan and Rose) to 80PPG. Shooting %'s are pretty realistic (with 3PT shooting down to 45 for both teams), and it's possible to clamp down on D which is great.

On Superstar I win by 20+ every time. Turning up the CPU shooting sliders on Superstar makes it more challenging, but then the CPU team shoots over 50% most of the time.

Maybe I'll try tweaking more of the settings on HOF (like defensive awareness) as someone mentioned.