The Los Angeles Lakers are standing at a 8-10 record to their season and continue to struggle in late game situation, and you can say part of the blame can be put on center Dwight Howard.

As dominating as a player as he is, Howard has continued to struggle heavily throughout the season at the free throw line. In last night's 107-105 loss to the Houston Rockets, Howard missed 8 of 16 attempts from the charity line and the Lakers lost their second game in a row, dropping them to 1-5 on the road this season.

Despite his faults at the line and being subjected to the "Hack-a-Dwight" defensive strategy in late games, Howard believes he belongs in the fourth quarter, and so does head coach Mike D'Antoni.

After last night's loss, D'Antoni was asked by reporters why he didn't remove Howard from the game.

"Because they have no clue what they're talking about," D'Antoni said. "It's pretty simple. You don't do that to a guy and he made his foul shots. He's not the reason that our defense breaks down. He's not the reason that stuff happens. He's got to work through this.

"If you take him out now, then what are you going to do? Are you going to take him out all the time? You've got a player who's going to be your franchise player, you don't do that to him. And it's not him that's causing the problem."

Though Howard's struggles at the free throw line are a problem, the bigger problem is on the Lakers defense. Last night they allowed the Rockets to score 34 points to win the game, after letting the Orlando Magic score 40 on Monday night.

Howard's free throw shooting is a problem, but the teams focus should be on their defense.

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