The mood in the Boston locker room before Game 6 was relaxed, but it also had an anticipatory heaviness to it knowing they were within one win from becoming NBA Champions for the second time in three seasons.

Phil Jackson was missing at least some of his normal certitude we have come to routinely see over the years from him.

The game was very difficult to get a real feel for before it started, but most were expecting either a major act of god or a complete no-show from the Lakers for a Game 7 not to happen.

Kobe Bryant missed a clean look to begin the game from the left wing and then Kevin Garnett beat Pau Gasol in transition for a layup for the first bucket of the game.

If immediate starts were necessary, it was a disconcerting way to open out of the gate for the Lakers.

Listening to Jackson during his pregame press conference, the game would largely be won or lost by how his bench performed.

"You know, I think that the bench performance has to prove itself," said Jackson. "It's got to go out there. But in the same breath, benches play better on our homecourt than they do on the road. It's like, okay, they certainly have to have a chance to play, and if they're playing well, they'll stay."

Doc Rivers echoed the sentiment during his own pregame presser.

"I think Coach is right. I think role players tend to play better at home. I don't think that's anything new. We knew that. We do have a different cast of players with Rasheed (Wallace) being a veteran and Nate (Robinson) and (Glen Davis) are so emotional they could possibly play well on the road. You just never know what you're going to get from them. But that is true, you do prepare yourself to extend your starters' minutes on the road. You always do."

The bench situation would be sorted out in a decided fashion soon enough, but Bryant scored on the next possession on a dribble drive layup.

Kobe went 3-for-5 on layups during the first half after only getting one bucket on one attempt in his 38 point Game 5 and an 0-for-2 in his 33 point Game 4 effort. He chipped in another three buckets on just three attempts in the second half on layups, finishing with 26 points on 26 shots overall.

That ability for Kobe to establish some inside/outside offense opened up many of the open looks and/or space to work off the dribble that Ron Artest, Lamar Odom, Jordan Farmar, Shannon Brown and Sasha Vujacic enjoyed during the first half.

After the game Jackson talked about the impact those players made on the 89-67 win.

"Well, Jordan made a big recovery getting on the floor and getting after a ball," said Jackson. "Sasha made some baskets. (Derek Fisher) got in foul trouble, and Shannon came out and played a good backup role as a defensive player out there with the first unit, and that really helped us out. Josh (Powell) even gave us some minutes that were important out there to relieve Lamar."

Jackson talked again about how benches typically play better at home.

"There's a comfort zone out there. But the energy and the direction they had was what I was pleased with. I felt like they were directed and they had an idea what they wanted to get accomplished out there on the floor. That was important."

Fisher struggled defensively in that first quarter, both on Ray Allen and switching onto Rajon Rondo, but Brown made an impact on that side of the floor when he came into the game. The Celtics made just three more buckets in over six minutes after Brown's substitution.

The battle of the bench was a huge factor in why the Celtics won two out of three at home, but they failed to score a meaningful point throughout Game 6. Boston's bench didn't score a single bucket until the fourth quarter when the game was already decided.

We now head into the first Game 7 since 2005, the fifth in the history of Celtics/Lakers and the 17th in NBA history.

The home team has won 13 of the previous 16 meetings in Game 7s.

I genuinely find it difficult to make a prediction I can believe in for the final result of this Game 7 except I know we'll get the absolute best shot from both teams.

Kobe appeared sincere in his disinterest in the historical significance of a Celtics/Lakers Game 7, focusing on the singularity of his goal.

"I don't know, I don't think so," said Bryant when asked if Thursday's game will have a special meaning. "How I approach it is going out there and doing what I always do.  It's not because it's Game 7 you've got to do anything different, but if you play hard all the time, you've just got to do the same thing you're accustomed to doing."

In actuality, we have sometimes seen Kobe almost overvalue these moments, the big games and the last second shots where he takes it upon himself excessively to deliver.

While I wouldn't expect Artest to duplicate his Game 6 shooting, or the multifaceted contribution from the bench, Kobe will need to play that facilitator role again to give the Lakers their best chance of winning Game 7. By using the dribble drive and not settling for too many jumpers, the Lakers will score with a heightened efficiency that will be necessary to beat a Boston team that is incapable of playing much worse than they did in Game 6.

For the NBA, this will be just the second Game 7 of the entire playoffs. The Lakers and Celtics are their two most storied franchises and one extra game means a little more cap space this summer.

Chris Reina is the executive editor of RealGM. Follow him on Twitter at @CR_Reina.