Celtics star makes candid admission about teammate after Bucks win

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Celtics star makes candid admission about teammate after Bucks win

Brian Robb · MassLive

Sat, Apr 4, 2026 ·

2 min read

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When Jayson Tatum made his return from an Achilles tear this season, the only starter somewhat unfamiliar to the Celtics star was Neemias Queta .

Boston ’s new starting center had played two years with the Celtics but largely had spot duty in his first two seasons, filling in for Boston’s bigs on a very deep depth chart featuring Al Horford , Kristaps Porzingis and Luke Kornet . This season, Queta has been one of Boston’s biggest surprises as a standout center for a team where frontcourt depth was a massive question mark before the year began.

Tatum has been steadily building chemistry with Queta as his pick-and-roll partner and that duo appeared to hit a new level in their connection on Friday night. Tatum dished out his first three assists of the game to Queta in a dominant 43-point first quarter for the visitors.

Queta finished with 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting in the 133-101 victory, while adding four blocks in another stellar stretch for the 26-year-old. The big man has now scored in double digits in four of his last five games while shooting over 70 percent from the field.

The steady growth Queta has shown is earning him high praise from his star teammate after playing together for just 12 games this year.

“It’s unbelievable,” Tatum told reporters of Queta’s growth via NBC Sports Boston. “I couldn’t be more proud and happier for Neemi. The way he’s seeing the game. The leap he’s made as a screener, as a passer. Somebody we can trust when we throw the ball in the seams, finishing, protecting the rim. He is an NBA starting big man, that’s who he is now, and he’s only gonna continue to get better.”

Tatum finished with nine assists in the victory, with four of those dishes going to Queta, who took advantage of all the attention the Bucks defense was giving Tatum.

“Neemy did a great job in his screen reads, and then I thought our guys did a good job finding him, and then he finished or he kicked out for open shots,” Mazzulla said via NBC Sports Boston. “So, he started that, got Sam some open looks, Jayson and Jaylen were distributing, and we got a lot of catch-and-shoot shots.”

Queta and the Celtics will face a tougher test starting Sunday when facing off with Jakob Poeltl and the Raptors at TD Garden.

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