Neemias Queta, as the lone NBA player on Portugal’s roster, has been as advertised through the EuroBasket tournament. He’s led the team in points, rebounds and blocks as other teams have spoken about how they must limit him.
Now, Portugal faces an elimination game as Queta and his team take on Estonia in the final game of group play at 7:45 a.m. ET Wednesday. Both Portugal and Estonia are 1-3 in Group A. They have matched each other’s results thus far, beating the Czech Republic, but losing to Serbia, Turkey and Latvia in their other games.
The 2025 EuroBasket tournament features 24 teams split between four groups with six teams in each group. The top-4 of each group advance to the knockout stages for a total of 16 teams. In Group A, the Czech Republic is already eliminated as it’s 0-4.
The winner of Portugal or Estonia will finish 2-3 in the group and fourth in the group. They would then face the first-place team from Group B, which could be either Germany or Finland pending their game Wednesday. Regardless, Queta and Portugal will have to take it one game at a time, starting with Estonia.
Queta had a loud start to EuroBasket as he dominated the Czech Republic with 23 points and 18 rebounds, shooting 11-for-15 from the field. As a bonus, he also hit a 3-pointer in Portugal’s first EuroBasket victory since 2007.
Since then, Portugal has dropped three straight games against stellar EuroBasket competition. Queta has gone up against other NBA bigs, including former teammate Kristaps Porzingis and Latvia. Portugal hasn’t been a major threat on the international stage, but making the knockout stage would be a huge step for the country.
Queta has averaged 15.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in 23.7 minutes per game over his four contests. Portugal has leaned on its NBA center throughout the tournament as Queta has made plenty of history when it comes to his home country.
The EuroBasket games have shown some solid play for Queta as he enters an important season with the Celtics. Queta is a potential starter on Boston’s roster after the C’s lost their top-3 centers from last season. So the Celtics will hope Queta gets important experience ahead of training camp.
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