After the Warriors and Cavaliers rested a total of six All-Stars during nationally televised games on consecutive Saturdays, NBA commissioner Adam Silver sent a memo to team owners warning of “significant penalties’’ if teams do not follow protocol and notify the league about unavailable players.
Silver also encouraged owners to become involved in their teams’ decisions about when to rest stars, as the absences can have a negative impact on the game and the business. Silver’s memo has stirred some debate about how to balance offering a premium product without potentially sacrificing player health.
On Wednesday, Celtics coach Brad Stevens said that resting players near the end of the regular season — particularly after playoff positions have been secured — has become common.
“But I understand the discussion,’’ Stevens said. “We’re all sensitive to the fact that someone is going to watch a game in TD Garden for the first time tonight.’’
Stevens said because the Celtics have dealt with myriad injuries this season, his players have mostly received rest while sidelined. But he knows that is not the case for every team.
Next season, the NBA is planning to decrease the preseason by one week and add that time to the regular-season schedule — without adding any games — in order to decrease the number of teams playing on back-to-back nights.
“I hope the extra week in the season can appropriately handle some of those things, but there are some really tough stretches in this,’’ Stevens said. “It is difficult and you have to try and manage things as best as you can. I understand it has to be a discussion, but I understand why they do it.’’
Celtics forward Al Horford, who is in his 10th NBA season, said he understands both sides of the debate, and he is hopeful a schedule can be created that doesn’t make players feel like they need extra rest.
“The schedule’s intense,’’ Horford said. “It’s always been like that, but I just think that it’s just about finding ways to make the schedule more friendly, especially to a lot of these teams that have to travel and get on these crazy road trips and things like that. It’s something we’ll have to figure out.’’
Difference of opinion
On Friday, Butler and Florida will take part in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 16. Ten years ago, when Stevens was an assistant at Butler and Horford was playing for Florida, the Gators defeated the Bulldogs in the regional semifinals of the tournament, 65-57.
During one key play with three minutes left in the game, Horford was fouled as he made a basket. Stevens insists that the call should have gone the other way.
“Al Horford charged,’’ Stevens said, smiling. “He charged.’’
When Horford signed a four-year, $113 million deal with the Celtics last summer, Stevens sent him some clips from that game to give him an early primer on some of Boston’s concepts. He included that play in the package.
“And it was a charge,’’ Stevens said. “It doesn’t still irk me or anything.’’
When Stevens’s thoughts were relayed to Horford on Wednesday, he smiled and said that the referees got it right.
“I think that when you look back at the game and you’re the team that lost, you’re always going to find excuses and ways to try to [explain] something,’’ he said. “But hey, it was an and-one call, it was a big play and we put them away. They were a good team; they were a tough team. They played us hard all the way.’’
Playoff preview?
The game against the Pacers on Wednesday could have been a preview of a first-round playoff series. The Celtics are comfortably in second place in the Eastern Conference, while Indiana started is in sixth place, just a half-game in front of the seventh-place Bucks.
But the Celtics said it is too early to get caught up in that.
“For us, it’s just you go out there and play our style of play, and it’s just about us getting better,’’ Horford said. “It’s about getting better, not really getting caught up in who we’re going to play. It’s just us being the best we can.’’
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @adamhimmelsbach.
