Portuguese center Neemias Queta is enjoying a breakout campaign in the National Basketball Association, setting personal bests across the board, including a career-high 27 points on Sunday for the Boston Celtics.

Now in his fifth NBA season, the 26-year-old has cemented himself as a starter in Boston, where he is in his third year. Queta has become a key contributor to the Celtics’ strong campaign, with the team currently sitting second in the Eastern Conference. Early-season doubts surrounded the squad, particularly following Jayson Tatum’s injury and the departure of several key players, but Queta’s emergence has helped steady the ship.

After limited minutes in his first four seasons — the first two with the Sacramento Kings, who drafted him — Queta has featured in 57 games this season, starting 56 of them. He is now just five appearances away from matching his career-high for games played in a single season, set last year.

Prior to this campaign, the Portuguese center had started only six games in total, mostly during periods of heavy rotation. This year, however, he has made the position his own.

Queta has already registered career highs in assists (six), steals (three), blocks (six) and rebounds (20) in single games. He also became the first player in NBA history to record 10 offensive and 10 defensive rebounds in a single game while playing fewer than 25 minutes.

In overall production, he has surpassed the combined totals of his previous four seasons. Queta has scored 575 points in 2025/26 compared to 521 before this year, while also posting 476 rebounds (previously 400), 86 assists (72), 50 steals (32) and 76 blocks (73).

His per-game averages have climbed significantly with the added responsibility: 10.1 points (previous best 5.5 in 2023/24), 8.4 rebounds (4.4 in 2023/24), 1.5 assists (0.7 in 2023/24 and 2024/25), 0.9 steals (0.5 in 2023/24) and 1.3 blocks (0.8 in 2023/24), all in 24.9 minutes per game — nearly double the 13.9 minutes he averaged last season.

Queta has now played 167 regular-season games in the NBA: 147 with the Celtics — 28 in 2023/24, 62 in 2024/25 and 57 so far in 2025/26 — and 20 with Sacramento, including 15 as a rookie in 2021/22 and five in 2022/23. He won an NBA championship with Boston in his debut season with the franchise.

Selected 39th overall by Sacramento in the 2021 NBA Draft, Queta made history as the first Portuguese player ever to compete in the NBA — and he remains the only one to have done so.