The Celtics could have avoided Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. They had the option of resting starters and manipulating their playoff seed.

The Atlantic Division champions opted against it.

“Our thing was to worry about ourselves,” first-year Celtics coach Ime Udoka said Wednesday, as formal preparations began for their opening-round series against the Nets that starts Sunday afternoon in Boston. “To be the best version of ourselves. We weren’t concerned about anything else. We didn’t want to get involved in trying to manipulate matchups or standings or anything like that. We just wanted to focus on ourselves.

“We aren’t running from anybody.”

The Celtics blew out the Grizzlies on Sunday to close the regular season and earn the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. By doing so, they knew it likely meant a showdown against the star-studded Nets, who ended Boston’s postseason a year ago in the first round. After Durant and Irving led the Nets to a 115-108 victory over the Cavaliers in the play-in tournament on Tuesday, the highly anticipated rematch was set.

The Celtics won the season series, 3-1, and prevailed in the most recent meeting, on March 6, behind 54 points from star Jayson Tatum. But in two of those losses, the Nets didn’t have Durant and Irving. Boston will be shorthanded in this series. Top big man Robert Williams III suffered a torn left meniscus in late March and isn’t expected to be available.

On Tuesday, Nets forward Bruce Brown said Williams’ absence was a major advantage for Brooklyn since he is their leading rebounder and shot-blocker. But the Celtics won four of their last five games without Williams, and still have big men Al Horford, Daniel Theis and Grant Williams.

“If he thinks it’s attack time because Rob’s out, obviously we played quite a few games without him now and have done good enough to beat some good teams,” Udoka said. “We still have two high-level defenders back there.”

The Celtics finished seven games ahead of the Nets, had the best record in the NBA after the All-Star break (17-5) and had the league’s No. 1 defensive rating. In Tatum and Jaylen Brown (who didn’t play in the playoff series last year), the Celtics have a dynamic, in-their-prime tandem on the wing. That is why despite the presence of superstars in Irving and Durant, the Nets are still considered an underdog in this series.

“There’s no way [the Nets] can beat the Celtics,” Turner Sports analyst Charles Barkley said Tuesday night. “All these fools on these other morning talk shows, can let this ship sail. [Durant and Kyrie] played great and they barely beat a mediocre Cavs team.”

That may be true, but the Nets did go 33-19 during the regular season when Durant was in the lineup and have won five straight games. Their 44-38 record is somewhat deceiving since Durant missed so much time with a knee injury and Irving played in just 29 games due to his refusal to meet New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Even the Celtics don’t expect this to be an easy series.

“Everybody knows the talent they have. It’s not a traditional seventh-seed team,” Tatum said. “They had some ups and downs this year, but, you know, for the most part they have their full team.”