Veteran big man Neemias Queta proved on Sunday why Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla kept him in the starting lineup after the team traded for Nikola Vucevic at the NBA trade deadline.
The Portuguese center tallied a career-high 27 points to go with 17 rebounds (10 offensive boards) and three blocks, making franchise history on several counts. Per StatMuse, he’s the first Celtics player since Hall of Famer Robert Parish in 1989 to record at least 25+ points and grab 10+ offensive rebounds in a regular-season game.
Queta also became the first Celtics player since former MVP Kevin Garnett in 2007 to record at least 25 points and 15 rebounds on 70% shooting, per RealApp.
Neemias Queta Shines for Celtics
Most impressively, Queta shot 10-of-14 from the field and 7-of-10 from the foul line, completely outplaying 76ers bigs Andre Drummond and Trendon Watford.
The Celtics’ X account called Queta’s career-best night “a legacy game” and also honored him as Player of the Game for his +20 performance.
While the rest of the NBA world may be surprised by Queta’s dominant showing, his Celtics teammates have come to expect a similar effort from their starting center nightly, even if his numbers don’t jump out. To that end, Sunday’s performance marked Queta’s 11th double-double of the season and his third over his last five games.
Jaylen Brown Not Surprised
Jaylen Brown, who finished with 27 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in the 114-98 victory, explained why he wasn’t shocked by Queta’s monster game.
“I won’t say surprised. I’m happy, though,” Brown said of Queta’s career-best game.
“I’m very pleased to see his progression. He’s been working had all season long, and done a good job this year. I think he has another level that he can tap into. And I feel like he’s starting to tap into that next level.”
“We just got to keep empowering that,” he added. “We’ve got to keep telling him when he’s doing well, and give him feedback when he’s not. But tonight, he was excellent.”
Queta, averaging 10.1 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.3 blocks, has stepped in a big way for the Celtics this season after the franchise lost Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis last offseason. At the start of the season, many analysts felt the C’s needed to add a quality center to fill the void left by Horford and Porzingis, which is why they added Vucevic at the trade deadline. However, Queta has established himself as the starting big.
The red-hot Celtics (40-20) have won 11 of their last 13 games, including two in a row, after their blowout loss to the Denver Nuggets last week. Joe Mazzulla’s team will next face the Milwaukee Bucks (26-33) in the second night of a back-to-back on Monday.
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