We got the Game 7 and we got the close game everyone wanted. It had as much tension, twists, turns and surprises as you'll ever see in 48 minutes of basketball.

It was also the greatest 'bad' basketball game in history.

It was a bizarre series the whole way through and Game 7 was the ultimate cherry on top of that.

Neither the Lakers or Celtics really began to get into a rhythm or find any lasting comfort on the floor until the final minutes of Game 7.

Even though the numbers were unmistakably horrible for Kobe Bryant, it was the way he looked that was more genuinely troubling. He wasn't simply missing clean looks and having a bad night; the Celtics were playing remarkable defense against him and he looked overmatched.

Led largely by Ray Allen, the Celtics forced Kobe laterally and prevented him from getting into the paint. Kobe was turned exclusively into a jump shooter, but more importantly, one that couldn't get to the spots he wanted to and had to take difficult shots.

The Lakers shot 6-for-27 in the first quarter, which was bound to improve along the way, but they still finished the game with a 32.5% mark from the field.

The Lakers outrebounded Boston by a margin of 15-2 on the offensive glass in the first half, but only scored nine second chance points (4-for-14). Since the Celtics also struggled to score, with just 40 points at the break, the Lakers' ability on the glass kept the game close even if they were down by 13 at one point in the third.

Kobe was all over the place in a bad way, going 3-for-14 from the floor in that first half. Two of his makes were about six feet away and the the third was from the top of the key. The remainder of his attempts were scattered all over parts of the floor where Kobe rarely succeeds.

Coming out in the third quarter, Kobe continued to settle for highly difficult jumpers. He began attacking a little bit better later into the half, but he still was far from effective and far from sharp. Every move he made had people in a reverse disbelief that he typically delivers when you are shocked by his shotmaking when he is at the height of his game.

Legacies were once formed over years and years, but we live in an instant world now and that was true of Kobe's Game 7. John Starks was on everyone's mind and near the top of Twitter's trending topics and even one of Michael Jordan's sons was writing Kobe's Game 7 obituary.

It felt like we were witnessing a historically bad performance from the player we would last expect to shrink in a game of this magnitude.

After the game, I asked Derek Fisher if he was first surprised by Kobe's offensive struggles, but also about what he said when he had his arm around his longtime teammate between the third and fourth quarter.

"I mean, when you shoot the ball with the volume that Kobe does, there are going to be periods where everything is going in and maybe sometimes where it's not," said Fisher. "I don't remember a lot of necessarily easy shots that he was getting throughout the game, either. He was having to take some difficult shots with two guys hanging off of him.

"You know, not so much surprised by his struggles, but basically was I was just trying to talk to him about was just that he was playing a little too fast," said Fisher.

"He was going and he was seeing things that he wanted to do, but it was like he was a step and a half too quick to get there, and he's so good at footwork and setting guys up and getting guys leaning one way and spinning out and going the other way, and he was going too fast before the guys could even go for the move.

"He just had to slow himself down, and I think getting to the free throw line also in that fourth quarter was really big for him, to see the ball go through the basket."

Phil Jackson left Bryant on the bench to begin the fourth quarter, but brought him right back in on the first dead ball. He immediately missed another 20-foot jumper, then committed a turnover and a subsequent foul. Still not even close to being himself, Kobe was able to get Ray Allen to bite on a three-pointer from the right corner, drawing a foul and converting all three free throws.

The offense went away from Kobe, as Ron Arrtest made an 'And 1' to tie it up at 61, then Fisher tied it again with a patented clutch three-pointer.

Bryant was able to draw a foul on Glen Davis, making both free throws and giving the Lakers their first lead since the opening minutes. After an Allen miss on Boston's subsequent possession, Kobe made a 17-foot jumper to extend the Lakers' lead to four and that would be his only field goal of the quarter.

"I still don't know how we won this game," said Kobe, more than an hour after it was over.

The win didn't come from any of the expected sources, it just kind of happened. Artest was all over the floor and had a good scoring night, showing that old ability offensively that made him seem like he could become the best two-way player in the game back in 2005. Fisher fulfilled his big shot quota and Lamar Odom had a 'stat doesn't tell the story' floor game.

Pau Gasol grabbed 18 rebounds to overcome his admitted free throw jitters, including a huge offensive rebound with 27 seconds remaining in the game. And Sasha Vujacic somehow made two of the biggest free throws in NBA history when a split seemed like the inevitable result.

The one thing I was most concerned about coming into Game 7 was if Kobe would be willing to be a productive facilitator. We figured if Kobe needed 39 shots to score 23 points as he did, the Celtics would have won easily. He only had two assists and shot about as poorly as he possibly could have, but the flow was different where he wasn't trying to do it all himself. It was his normal offense and the fact that the Lakers had 23 offensive rebounds negated the detriment of at least some of those Kobe misses.

Regardless of how Kobe played in Game 7, he still did win ring No. 5 and the way he battled through injuries to get there has elevated him another notch in the greatest players of all-time conversation.

The Boston perspective is difficult to accurately articulate and will take a long time to properly appreciate. As Kobe's struggles were the story of the game, I saw it as a result of Boston's suffocating team defense.

Offensively, Kevin Garnett was easily their best player and looked as healthy as he did in 2008 at times in Game 7. He scored 17 points on 8-for-13 shooting. Rasheed Wallace also had an efficient offensive game.

Rajon Rondo was the Rajon Rondo we have come to expect, no more and no less, though there were a few 50-50 rebounds he usually is more successful in grabbing.

The combined 8-for-29 shooting from Paul Pierce and Ray Allen was the ultimate story for the Celtics. Allen's defense on Kobe excuses the poor shooting night, but there is no denying Piece was outplayed on both ends of the floor by Artest. The series was the worst possible matchup for Piece because of the way Artest is suited to negate Pierce's best attributes, but a 43.9% series (43-for-96) was obviously several made buckets short of what was ultimately needed.

Few people expected the Celtics to regroup this season, but it really did feel like the last genuine stand for the Garnett/Pierce/Allen era as we've known it.

Looking at the broader, health of the NBA perspective, it is almost unfortunate the year-long lockout we have been told to brace for isn't happening this summer because this Game 7 is one that we'll all be able to chew on and still find satisfying for many more months, if not years to come.

But we'll have the 10-11 season and a chance for another threepeat. In the meantime, I need to go buy a new tire since my car was one of the casualties of the Lakers' 16th championship.

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