Most teams (especially at home) play TIE to save enthusiasm for the playoffs/relegation. Home court advantage is usually worth around 12 points and playing at a higher attitude is worth another 12. Usually teams at level III or higher understand this, but this league, so far, is a bit different. Three of the five teams I've played so far have chosen to play on normal. If you look at my stats you'll see an unusually high number of fouls being committed. This is the sim making up the difference in points through fouls because of the TIE vs Normal. It's why you shot 19 more foul shots than I did tonight.
It's your team and you can obviously play however you want, but it will cost you come playoff time.