Neemias Queta's Dominant Night vs. Philadelphia Started With A Phone Call in July

BOSTON — Neemias Queta has been at this for a while. He’s four months from his 27th birthday, so while he is still seen as a young development project, he’s actually just entering his prime. This is his fifth season in the NBA, third with the Boston Celtics.

It’s starting to really click for him this season, culminating in a career night against the Philadelphia 76ers. He’s put in a lot of work to get here.

“The process of what he's gone through to earning what he's got is really what I care about,” Joe Mazzulla said after the win. “We have to wake up and do it again tomorrow, so there's that piece to it, but there's the piece of he's taken on the ownership and the responsibility, and he cares about working hard and understanding how important what he does for us and for our team.”

Queta is equal parts hungry, talented, and lucky. The new CBA forced the Celtics to shed tens of millions of dollars in salary. Starting center Kristaps Porzingis was traded, and the two primary backups, Al Horford and Luke Kornet were too expensive to keep. As it is right now, the Celtics are still playing a shell game to sneak under the tax line.

Queta showed enough last season to get an opportunity, but even the Celtics, who brought in Luka Garza and Chris Boucher as well, had to squint to see viability to their center rotation.

“That group will not be the group that people will single out based on paper, on what they've done with their careers thus far, as our strongest position,” Brad Stevens said in July. “But it's up to them to prove it otherwise.”

Queta has proved otherwise and then some. The most recent stage started right about when Stevens made that comment, when Mazzulla called to tell him he’d be the starter.

“I think it was crucial for me before I went to play a national team too,” Queta said. “Just having the [knowledge] that my team is gonna rely on me a lot, to go out there and perform every night. I feel like that started off with the national team, playing for Portugal was huge for me this summer, allowed me to get a lot of rhythm, allowed me to get a lot of confidence too.”

Queta was coming off knee surgery to address long-term soreness. His rehab dovetailed into rebounding and pick-and-roll defensive drills to prepare him for the added workload. He excelled in the EuroBasket tournament for Portugal, putting up 23 points, 18 rebounds, four blocks and two steals in Portugal’s first win in 18 years.

He carried the confidence into the season, where has shown incredible improvement. Even things that he didn’t do well to start the season have been addressed. His commitment to film study and fixing mistakes, along with the minutes to play through them, has been critical.

"[It’s] so much easier for me right now,” Queta said. “Just the amount of repetitions I've been having with these guys every day. Kind of understand what they like, what they don't like. The game is just slowing down for me.”

The Celtics clearly trust Queta to make plays. One reason why the Celtics were able to ultimately pick the Sixers apart was finding Queta in the openings the Sixers presented. The work Queta has put in all season long allows him to build trust with his teammates.

“The big was up — [Andre] Drummond was up on those screens — so those seams were open,” Jaylen Brown said. “We just gave him the ball and trusted him to make the right decision every time, and he was able to get it going. He had some nice up-and-unders in the seam and stuff like that that helped us propel us to a win. But their big was up, so we just trusted him in the seam, and he made the right play every single time.”

Brown could barely hold back a smile when he said “nice up-and-unders,” because those finishes were not typically in Queta’s repertoire.

Just look at this graphic the Celtics tweeted out.

Neemias Queta Legacy Game 👏@nemi1599 scored a career-high in points as tonight's @Gatorade Player of the Game pic.twitter.com/WMgGkcDuVI
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 2, 2026

Queta, arm stretched out in the “under” portion which followed the “up-and,” tongue wagging like … oh nevermind I won’t say it. That picture is not of Neemias Queta. That's “Neemy,” the gliding alter ego doing some kind of Clyde Drexler impression.

It was like going to a karaoke bar after work and listening in astonishment to a coworker crush Lady Gaga’s part in “Die With A Smile.”

“You know…hey…you know…uhhh….We don’t want him to get too carried away with some of those,” Brown said, laughing as he struggled to find the right words. “But he was converting them tonight and it looked good. In other nights he may have not have converted those. But you’ve got to give him credit where credit is due. He had a good game today, so I’m gonna just focus on that.”

There is still a lot for him to work on. He’s by no means a finished product, which Mazzulla reminds him of from time to time. Even if the situation seems over-the-top, like when he motioned for Queta to grab an opponent shot instead of blocking it into the third row. Mazzulla is never one to settle say anyone is good enough where they are. He wants more from Queta.

And as long as Queta keeps working like he has to get here, he will probably get it.

“Part of telling him in the summer that he was going to be the starting center was giving him the time to properly wrap his mind around and physically, mentally and emotionally prepare himself for what it means to be the starting center for the Celtics,” Mazzulla said. “I think he's taken on that ownership and responsibility well, and he's got to keep it going. He has a responsibility now to continue to get better, regardless of the process. In less than 24 hours, we've got to do it again, and then on. But he cares about winning, he cares about getting better. He's got to keep it that way.”