He finally has company on the list of Utah Jazz opponents whose unusual behavior overshadows the basketball being played at EnergySolutions Arena.

Sacramento's Ron Artest took aggressiveness and emotional play to a Rodman-like level Friday night, when his chest-pounding, crowd-taunting, arms-flailing performance eventually earned him two technical fouls and automatic ejection from the Jazz's 127-117 win over the Kings.

Artest was booted with 4:34 left in the game.

He wasn't around later, either, because a member of the Sacramento public relations department clandestinely escorted him to the team bus before reporters got to the Kings' locker room.

For their part, the Jazz mostly shook their head over Artest's performance.

"He's a competitor. He fed off our crowd. He got them into the game being aggressive, being physical," said Carlos Boozer. "He tested a couple of my teammates to see how they would respond to him and I thought we did a good job of maintaining our composure and keeping our focus on the game and not falling into the trap."

Smiling, Boozer added, "That's what he does. He wants to egg you [on] and make you think about him - not the Sacramento Kings - and I thought we did a good job of playing through it."

Asked about Artest, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan shrugged.

"That's why you have officials," he said. "There's nothing we can do about it. . . . It appeared to me he wanted out of the ballgame, for whatever reason. I don't know. He's a very good player. But I don't know. I don't coach that team."

Artest's primary nemesis in this game was Jazz forward Matt Harpring, who said, "He can do whatever he wants. He's not going to scare me. . . . [But] you can't play basketball that way. I mean, he's certainly not going to - if he was trying to bully me or scare me, that's just not going to happen."

With 4:26 left in the third quarter, Artest scored, cutting Utah's lead to 77-76. On his way up the floor, he pounded his chest and yelled at the crowd. The Jazz seemed to notice and immediately went on a decisive 9-0 run.

Said Sacramento coach Reggie Theus: "You know what? [Artest] is a warrior. He plays hard and the referees watch him closely."

luhm@sltrib.com