Los Angeles coach Mike D'Antoni paid a lot of attention to former Lakers center Dwight Howard down the stretch.

He needed to get the ball out of the hands of Houston Rockets guard James Harden and figured the best way to do that was with the "hack-a-Howard" defense.

The strategy worked perfectly, with Howard missing seven late free throws to allow the Lakers to keep it close before Steve Blake hit a wide-open 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds remaining to lift them to a 99-98 victory Thursday night.