Ugly can not begin to describe what is now in the history books as the first seventh game in the Shawmut/Fleet/Banknorth/Derek Jeter/Boston Garden Center.

You’ll hear the words “pathetic” and “embarrassing” from Boston Celtics fans today. And certainly last night’s game was a major wake-up call for anyone who hasn’t noticed in the last, oh, 17 years, that the glory days are gone.

The fact is that the Indiana Pacers had more experience, more character and better coaching than the Celtics last night. They dictated the pace of the game, made their shots in the second half and played infinitely better defense throughout. They turned a team that was a lot of fun to watch during the regular season into a maddeningly inconsistent one that, with its immature antics, became increasingly difficult to root for.

Whether the Celtics won or lost last night was almost meaningless in the overall scheme of things. This postseason has been about Danny Ainge and Doc Rivers learning as much as they can about their team before going into the off-season with the 18th and 50th picks in the draft and a couple of decisions to make regarding free agents Antoine Walker and Gary Payton.

Danny and Doc need to decide whether it’s wise to build the franchise around Walker and Pierce for a second time. The first time didn’t go so great.

Walker is a team leader who leads entirely with his heart and never allows his head into the equation. That’s not a good combination for someone approaching 30 who is undersized for a power forward and has no lift in his legs.

Walker’s presence could also take valuable minutes away from Al Jefferson’s development over the next couple of years. Jefferson is the real deal, folks. If he can become an average defender, he’s going to develop into one of the top power forwards in the game. He already does things around the basket that can’t be taught, and if the C’s can get a big man coach to teach him the things that can, look out.

On the other hand, the Celtics will certainly take a step back next year and probably the year after if they don’t re-sign Walker. They won’t be able to find a player of comparable value for his salary slot, and they would actually have less money to spend in the future if they do not re-sign him. That’s the way the NBA salary cap works, kind of like a bureaucracy where department heads have to do a lot of wasteful spending to justify asking for the same budget next year.

As for Payton, well, thanks Gary. You did a nice job this year, though the leadership you were supposed to bring to the team was highly overrated. You played good defense against Reggie Miller when Doc realized the Tony Allen experiment wasn’t working. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many more guards in the league pushing 40 for you to defend. Now run along.

The braintrust has another “team leader” it needs to evaluate. Paul Pierce is signed for the long-term, but he is also virtually the only tradable commodity the franchise has. He is also, thanks to Thursday night’s episode, about at the end of his leash with a large percentage of Celtic fans. He’s their scapegoat now. I don’t think that’s entirely correct, but that doesn’t matter right now. Things could go downhill quickly for him in Boston, a la Vince Carter in Toronto, and it may be in everyone’s best interest to turn the page.

Regardless of what becomes of Walker, Payton and Pierce, the Celts will still have two albatross contracts holding them back next year – Raef Lafrentz and Mark Blount. Blount was completely useless this series. Aside from Game 1, Lafrentz was equally Greg Kite-like, and would have been riding the bench by Blount’s side if not for the fact that the only alternative Doc had was Kendrick Perkins, who fouls out when he’s playing P-I-G in his driveway.

Ainge is stuck with those guys, with no one to blame but himself. He’s also hired a coach whose ability to make the adjustments necessary in the postseason proved shaky at best in the last two weeks.

Things can go in two directions from here. The pessimist in me thinks that unless the C’s get really lucky in the draft, what we’re looking at is another year of donut basketball where they run in spurts, stand around and watch Pierce and Walker in the half court, shoot 3s, play astoundingly lazy defense, lose in the first round and get a middling draft pick.

The optimist in me thinks that Ainge makes a couple of bold moves this summer, has another good draft, builds around Jefferson, has the patience to allow the young talent to develop, lets Doc do what he does best, which is teach young talent.

Then in three or four years, we’ll have a team with a new centerpiece (Jefferson), a new coach (sorry, Doc) and a new identity (hopefully, championship contender).

Yeah, things may have to get ugly for a year or two before then, but they can’t possibly get uglier than last night.

Randy Whitehouse is a staff writer. He can be reached at [email protected].