When the game is tight, or when the Rockets are losing, when the stakes are high as they will be beginning tonight when the Rockets open the postseason against the Trail Blazers, Artest can sense that emotion grow within him. He can feel it drive and change him.

This is Artest at his best. It is sometimes Artest at his worst. It could be the difference between the Rockets ending their long playoff slump and falling quickly again. It could be the measure of their experiment to plug him in to a team looking for something to push it farther than it has gone in more than a decade.

"It's part of who he is," coach Rick Adelman said. "That's what makes him very good in this league.

"It's his competitiveness. He's going to keep coming at you. He may be having a terrible game, but he's going to keep coming, keep coming at you. He's not going to ever shy away. That's good and that's bad, but that's the biggest thing, his competitiveness."

There have been times his competitiveness has gotten the better of him. He drove the Rockets to a commanding lead in Chicago, and also their collapse from a 17-point fourth-quarter lead to a stunning loss.

He got himself in a battle with the Lakers' Kobe Bryant, inciting Bryant to dominate him, and then said, "I like to talk to the guy who's going to kill me."

Yet, he said he has improved over the years and through this season in channeling his off-the-charts aggressiveness and competitiveness. He said he has avoided the mistakes that he made in the past when things have gone wrong, as they did this season, when he was initially coming off the bench, slowed by injuries and frustrated by losses.

Keep it fun

More than that, he said he cherishes the postseason.

"Now I know it has to be fun," said Artest, 29. "Before, the time with coach Adelman (with the Kings in 2006), it was a lot of angry emotion involved toward the other team and not enough focus on my own team.

"Now I realize the mistakes I made. You have to play hard, but it's fun Basketball. It's the best time of the year. And when you win, it makes it that much better. The city loves you. All the people around the country are talking about you. It gives you that much more incentive to go out and play and poke your chest out a little bit.

"When you're a Basketball player, you know how much fun it is to put the ball in the hoop to win a game, to hit an off-the-glass shot, a 3, to get an and-one - that's fun. It looks like it's a different type of emotion, but it's fun. When you get a chance to go home, just sit back, eat some dinner and you won a game, that's fun.

"Some people, I think, when they miss the last shot and (think), ?Oh I missed the last shot,' and really get down on themselves instead of taking the next one. If it goes in, then you're the king."

The Rockets are convinced Artest, 6-7, is not trying to be "the king." He is driven to compete and win, even if he sometimes loses control.

Still, just as he has seemed far removed from the guy who went into the stands at the Palace of Auburn Hills, inciting the worst brawl between fans and players in NBA history, he has grown on the court as well.

"Watching him over the last several years, my take is he's got a very good handle of his game and how he fits into that team," said Dallas coach Rick Carlisle, Artest's coach in Indiana. "I think he knows how to channel his competitiveness in a way that helps their team the most now. He's grown a lot. I don't see anything as being an issue.

"Ron's a great player. He brings toughness. He brings a physical dimension to the position. He's one of the really unusual players in this league because of a combination of strength and skill. Every year he's been in the league, he's been one of the more difficult guys to match up with."

But Artest believes he has grown off the court, diminishing issues on it, and preventing the flare-ups of misdeeds in his past. Everything from his own incidents to dealing with his daughter Diamond's chemotherapy for a cancerous kidney tumor, now in remission, brought perspective, he said.

"That has a lot to do with it," Artest said. "Playing under a lot of duress, stress and wanting to get better . . . when there are so many things around you that aren't about Basketball, helped me figure it out.

"I guess you get older. I always had trouble with losing. I would get so mad. I would let it upset me. It would carry over for the next couple games. It would end up hurting team chemistry for a couple days, or a week or even longer than that. I don't accept losing, but I know now, if you lose, get better from it. Find out why you lost and improve."

Crucial to postseason

Still, this postseason could be as important for him as for the Rockets organization. A free agent this offseason, he has said he wants to return to Houston , and Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said he wants Artest back.

But both know that his and the team's future will depend on what happens when he gets that feeling.

"Now I know when you're down, still play within the team," Artest said. "Just because you're one of the better players on the team doesn't mean you have to take it upon yourself. It took a long time to get there, but now I realize that. I understand now, you're not going to win by yourself.

"Going into the playoffs with this team is going to be fun. Everybody is ready. The team is really into each other. And we feel confident. We know if we play well, we'll win."

That, he said, is the best feeling of all.

jonathan.feigen@chron.comMay 2

at Portland

TBD

TV/radio: KTXH, TNT; 610 AM, 850 AM (Span.)April 30

at Toyota Center

TBD

TV/radio: KTXH, TBD; 610 AM, 850 AM (Span.)April 28

at Portland

TBD

TV/radio: KTXH, TBD; 610 AM, 850 AM (Span.)April 26

at Toyota Center

8 p.m.

TV/radio: KTXH, TNT; 610 AM, 850 AM (Span.)Friday

at Toyota Center

8:30 p.m.

TV/radio: KTXH, ESPN; 610 AM, 850 AM (Span.)Tuesday

at Portland

9 p.m.

TV/radio: , KTXH, NBA TV; 610 AM, 850 AMToday

at Portland

9:30 p.m.

TV/radio: KTXH, ESPN; 610 AM, 850 AM (Span.)chron.com/rocketsO O O Saturday, April 18, 2009 Page C7