Why Stephen A. Smith says he is “disgusted” with the Celtics

Celtics

“Someone has to say it, so I’m going to say it: The offense looks horrible.”

It wasn’t pretty, but the Celtics managed to come out of the TD Garden floor with a 133-128 overtime victory over the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night.

The Celtics needed a Jaylen Brown 3-pointer to force overtime, with several critical Indiana turnovers paving Boston’s way to a series-opening victory in the Eastern Conference finals.

It was the type of ugly, game-changing victory a title contender like the Celtics needed to get as they try to win their 18th title.

But even though Boston took care of business on its home court, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith was far from impressed with the Celtics’ performance in Game 1.

“Well, I’m disgusted with them, because I think their offense looks horrible,” Smith said on ESPN’s “First Take” Wednesday morning. “Someone has to say it, so I’ll say it: The offense looks horrible. And I declared it officially without any apology.

“As much as I respect Joe Mazzulla and the work he did, they had the best record in basketball and I understand all of that. I said this for the record, I think if Ime Udoka was still the coach of the Boston Celtics, they would have been champions by now. They might have won it last year. That’s how I feel about them.

“Disgusted” seems like an odd choice of words for a Celtics offense that still managed to score 133 points against an admittedly weak Pacers defense, including 117 points in regulation.

The Celtics should have generated even more offense in Game 1, as Boston’s signature 3-point shooting under Mazzulla was in a lull for most of the night (15 of 45, 33.3 percent). Six missed free throws also played a big role in a close game.

Smith continued to tear the Celtics apart, particularly when it came to their inconsistency.

“There’s a difference between what the Boston Celtics looked like according to Ime Udoka and what they looked like offensively over the last couple of years,” Smith said. “You just see too many random plays. Now, this is the kind of team that can almost blow the game away and it takes overtime to win the first game.

“But then they go out and stink up the joint in the second game, then go to Indiana and win two games in a row. That’s the kind of team Boston is. You don’t know what you’re going to get.

The Celtics will have the opportunity to prove Smith and other ESPN pundits wrong on Thursday when they host the Pacers again for Game 2 at TD Garden. The alert is set for 8 p.m.