Neemias Queta was pulled early from Portugal's win over Spain in the FIBA World Cup qualifying round.
The Boston Celtics had a good day in the FIBA World Cup qualifying games on Friday by proxy of the representatives the team had playing for their respective countries.
Center Luka Garza had a 10-point showing for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the country's 78-76 win over Italy on Friday.
Guard Hugo Gonzalez was on the wrong end of a Celtic vs. Celtic matchup in his native Spain's 95-89 loss to Portugal on Friday.
Boston's representative for Portugal, Neemias Queta, had a great game for his native country. He put up 16 points and brought in nine rebounds, five offensive, in the win.
However, it seems like Portugal's win and Queta's solid game came at a cost.
Portugal pulled Queta, who played 24 minutes, 37 seconds, in the fourth quarter. Portugal's head coach, Mario Gomes, said that Queta's exit was due to a "real risk" of injury, but didn't specify what the injury was or the severity of it, according to a post on "X" from Spotrac contributor Keith Smith.
The Celtics will likely hope that that the concern is a minor one and that Queta will be ready to go for offseason activities and preseason games when he returns from the FIBA qualifying round, which continues through mid-September.
Queta was signed to a two-way deal with Boston in the 2023 offseason and was a role player for his first two seasons with the franchise. He played in 90 total games in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons and started six. He didn't average more than 13.9 minutes per game in either of f those seasons.
Last year, Queta stepped into a starting role for the first time in his five-season NBA career. In a career-high 76 games (75 starts), he averaged 10.2 points on 65.3% shooting from the floor. He also averaged 8.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.3 blocks per game.
Queta was awarded for his career-best season and signed a four-year, $56 million contract July 3, which will keep him with the franchise for the rest of the decade.
Even with the extension, there's been questions posed this offseason whether he will return to his exact starting role from last year, as the team also signed defending NBA champion and rim-protector Mitchell Robinson to a long-term free agent deal.
Robinson has dealt with injuries throughout his career and a healthy frontcourt of him and Queta would allow the team to continue to maximize both players' minutes and benefit from the latter's newfound form and the former's defensive prowess.
However, if Queta is dealing with a long-term injury, Robinson could be tasked with anchoring the team's defense until the former is healthy.
