Call it the Neemias Queta Game.
The Celtics center, whose ascent from fourth-stringer to impact starter has been instrumental to Boston’s success this season, delivered the best performance of his career Sunday night to power his team to a 114-98 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers at TD Garden.
Queta finished with a career-high 27 points, 16 rebounds, three blocks and one steal in 27 minutes. Much of his production came during a sensational first half, which ranked among the best by an NBA big man this season, but Queta also scored eight points in the final 2:56 of regulation to stifle a Sixers comeback bid.
He shot 10-for-14 from the field and 7-for-10 from the foul line, and 10 of his rebounds were of the offensive variety, headlining a dominant night on the boards for Boston. The Celtics outrebounded the 76ers 58-37 and owned a 19-10 edge on the offensive glass.
“I think he’s continuing to get better, but you’ve got to put your head down,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said of Queta, who’s started all but four games this season and ranks in the top 10 in the NBA in net rating. “You’ve got to chip away. You’ve got to have a level of professionalism, work ethic, understanding. He’s brought all that on.
“I thought he’s had great ownership and responsibility to what it calls for to be a starting center for the Celtics, and he’s got to continue to get better. He works at it. He cares. So it’s a credit to him.”
Queta’s veteran understudy, Nikola Vucevic, posted an 11-point, 12-rebound, one-block double-double in the win. Jaylen Brown flirted with a triple-double (27 points, eight rebounds, eight assists in 38 minutes), and Derrick White scored 21 with eight assists, two blocks, two steals and five made 3-pointers.
The Celtics won by double figures despite a scoreless 27 minutes from Payton Pritchard, who went 0-for-4 in his first zero-point outing since last January.
Tyrese Maxey scored a game-high 33 points for Philadelphia but went just 12-for-34 from the field. His backcourt sidekick, VJ Edgecombe, was similarly inefficient, scoring 23 points on 8-of-21 shooting and finishing as a minus-14. The Sixers played without their injured superstar center, former NBA MVP Joel Embiid (oblique), and nine-time All-Star wing Paul George, who is serving a 25-game suspension for violating the league’s anti-drug policy.
Sunday’s game was the first meeting between the Atlantic Division rivals since Nov. 11, and their last one scheduled this season. Philadelphia is a potential first-round playoff opponent for Boston, however, as the teams entered Sunday as the No. 2 and 6 seeds in the Eastern Conference, respectively.
Their first three matchups were decided by a total of four points, with the Sixers winning two and the C’s taking one. The 40-20 Celtics will visit Milwaukee on Monday in the second end of a back-to-back.
Baylor Scheierman, a consistent difference-maker since joining Boston’s starting lineup full-time in early February, played through a fractured left thumb he suffered during Friday’s 148-111 win over Brooklyn. The fracture was on Scheierman’s shooting hand, and he wore a splint to protect it.
The second-year wing said pregame that he felt “good enough to be out there,” but with a few notable exceptions (more on those below), he struggled to find his outside shot. Scheierman missed his first three 3-pointers and finished 2-for-9 from distance.
Scheierman did have an early offensive rebound that led to a lob dunk for Queta. Offensive boards sustained the Celtics’ offense during an erratic first quarter, during which they shot 3-for-13 from three but scored 13 second-chance points.
Queta spearheaded that effort with five OREBs in the opening period, including one that set up Jordan Walsh for a 3-pointer. That came during an 11-1 Celtics run that erased a 10-point Sixers advantage.
The Boston big man then one-upped himself during a dominant two-minute stretch early in the second quarter. Queta stole an Andre Drummond pass and slammed home a two-handed dunk at the other end. Thirty-two seconds later, he received a pass from White at the foul line, dribbled once and finished an up-and-under layup between two Philly defenders.
“Their big (Drummond) was up,” Brown said, “so we just trusted him in the seam, and he made the right play every single time.”
Queta then grabbed a one-handed rebound off a missed Walsh three and laid it in. He followed that up by splitting two Sixers for another athletic layup, punctuating a fast break sparked by a Pritchard steal. Those types of at-the-rim finishes — both of which drew spirited reactions from the Boston bench — weren’t in Queta’s repertoire last season.
“Just trying to have fun out there,” Queta said. “When stuff like that really goes well and you’re able to capitalize on stuff like that, it’s really cool to see. Just want to keep on getting better and keep your bread and butter, your bread and butter. But when the opportunity allows itself, just go out there and have fun. I think I can expand my game with that type of stuff, and it will only make us better.”
Brown, who smiled as he recapped Queta’s up-and-unders, said the Celtics “don’t want him to get too carried away with some of those.”
All told, Queta scored eight straight Celtics points. When he checked out just past the midway point of the second quarter, the Garden crowd gave him a standing ovation.
Queta’s first-half stat line (16-12-2 with seven offensive rebounds and two blocks) has been matched just twice in the play-by-play era (since 1996-97), most recently by Kevin Garnett in a 2003 game against Golden State.
Brown scored or assisted on the Celtics’ final five baskets of the first half (and added a technical free throw after 76ers center Andre Drummond was T’d up while celebrating a rare 3-pointer). As time wound down, Boston’s All-Star muscled his way into the paint, drew the attention of Edgecombe and Maxey, and zipped a pass to an open Scheierman, who buried a buzzer-beating three in front of the Celtics bench.
Scheierman’s celebration: naturally, a thumbs-up. His triple sent Boston into halftime with a 62-50 lead.
“Baylor’s been balling on both ends,” Brown said. “… Baylor’s just an all-around good basketball player.”
BUZZER BEATER BAYLOR 🚨
Took a page out of the Payton playbook pic.twitter.com/aMGnY9MHOj
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 2, 2026
Third-quarter 3-pointers by Brown, White, Vucevic and White again, plus a pair of midrange Scheierman jumpers and a Queta dunk, stretched the Celtics’ lead to 80-65. But the Sixers responded with an 8-0 run to get back to within single digits. Boston led 89-83 entering the fourth.
A strong rim contest by Vucevic, followed by a second-chance 3-pointer from Boston’s backup big man, made it a 10-point game. A Brown three put Boston up 103-92 with 6:26 to play.
“(Vucevic) had a great second half on both ends of the floor,” said Mazzulla, who’s gotten strong minutes from both centers since Vucevic’s trade-deadline acquisition last month.
The Celtics then squandered a chance to pad their lead after Kelly Oubre Jr. was called for a flagrant 1 foul against Queta. The latter missed one of his two free throws, and Pritchard turned the ball over on the ensuing possession. Quentin Grimes capitalized with a jumper, Brown was whistled for an offensive foul and Maxey drove for a layup that cut it to 103-97.
Queta then put the Sixers away with his late scoring binge, which included back-to-back putbacks. Scheierman, who played competitive defense against Maxey in his opportunities, sealed the win with a corner three in the final minute.
The win was Boston’s sixth in its last seven games and 11th in its last 13.
“I think our identity definitely feels like it’s formulated,” Brown said. “Especially early in the season, we were kind of figuring things out, trying to find an identity with this new group of guys that were playing large minutes. … Then we get Vucevic, so now our identity kind of shifts a little bit again. I think we’ve done a good job of just being unselfish and playing Celtic basketball, and I think we’re starting to figure it out.
“Like, tonight was a team win. Everybody did their part, and when you’re doing that, it makes you a lot more dangerous. So we’re playing some good basketball right now, and we’ve just got to keep it up.”
That identity also could receive a major shakeup in the coming days. Jayson Tatum is unlikely to play Monday in Milwaukee — he’s said his first game back from Achilles surgery would be a Celtics home game — but appears to be closing in on a comeback. The Celtics will host the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday and Dallas Mavericks on Friday.
