Not from what I've seen. It usually occurs when the game is still in reach in the 3rd or 4th quarter. Teams are not allowed to do "hack a whoever" during the last 2 minutes. Teams use it to try to chip into the lead. But what happens is the Rockets usually increase their lead when they do it, so they stop.
Just as an example... the last time the Rockets played the Spurs, the Spurs started doing the "Hack-a-Howard" with 3:28 left in the 3rd quarter when the Rockets were winning 61-58. The Spurs stopped the Hack-a-Howard with 0:57 left in the 3rd quarter after the Rockets increased their lead to 70-62.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>That said, Howard did again point to the benefits of his lessons with Carroll Dawson.</p>— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/statuses/431462066524680192">February 6, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
