The Boston Celtics misplaced a nailbiter to the Philadelphia 76ers of their debut recreation of the ’25-26 NBA season. The sport got here right down to the wire, with Payton Pritchard getting two makes an attempt at a recreation winner within the last 10 seconds, however unable to get both to drop in a 117-116 loss.
It all the time leaves a bitter style to lose a detailed recreation, and much more so when it’s to a rival, and much more so when it’s a house opener. There’s a protracted season forward of Boston although, and there are undoubtedly positives to remove from this recreation. One factor that stood out particularly was the excellent play of Neemias Queta.
Queta received the beginning function for simply the seventh time in his profession. He took full benefit of the chance, successful the opening tip, and making the primary basket simply 17 seconds into the sport. Neemias ran a pleasant pick-and-roll play with Derrick White. He created loads of separation for Derrick to get away from Kelly Oubre, and White returned the favor by setting Queta up for a slicing layup with a nifty go.
The Celtics used this components fairly a bit to maintain him concerned. All seven of his buckets got here off of an help, six of them involving some type of screen-and-roll, whether or not that be the usual play, a ghost display screen, or a delayed entry go to benefit from a swap. PNRs additionally set Queta up for 2 of his 4 free-throw makes an attempt of the sport, in addition to his solely miss of the sport, although the miss was the results of a poor/late entry go from Pritchard permitting Oubre to succeed in and tip away the lob from Queta.
After the sport, Xavier Tillman talked about that Neemias “set some good screens for us, received us some benefits.” White, who assisted Queta 3 times, had this so as to add: “He was nice. Simply being accessible. Clearly, a giant goal. Comfortable contact across the hoop as effectively… That’s the Neemy we’re going to want the entire yr.”
Offensively, it regarded an identical to the kind of actions Brad Stevens had Robert Williams in all these years in the past. It’s the right solution to benefit from Queta’s measurement and athleticism, regardless that he could not leap out of the constructing like Rob did. In fact, like Derrick alluded to, the strides Neemy has taken together with his means to catch the ball and end cleanly in a single stride is what enabled his environment friendly evening, and can set him up for extra alternative all through the season.
In 25 minutes of play, Queta managed put up 17 factors on 7-8 taking pictures to associate with his 8 rebounds. He additionally went 3-5 from the free-throw line. Sadly, fouls nonetheless appear to be a difficulty for him.
He fouled out of the sport with slightly below two minutes remaining within the fourth quarter. At that time, the Celtics nonetheless held a four-point lead. The disqualifying foul despatched Tyrese Maxey to the road, sparking an 8-0 run by Philly that in the end gave them the sting.
Even nonetheless, Queta made a powerful case to stay the beginning heart for this crew. Joe Mazzulla took discover and shared some reward for him within the post-game press convention: “He did some actually good issues for us. The requirements are excessive for him. I assumed he answered the decision.” There may be lots to construct on, however Neemi did a superb job setting the tone for the season.
