Neemias Queta is recent off the perfect season of his NBA profession — and a summer season during which he signed a 4-year, $56 million contract extension with the Celtics. And whereas Queta continues to be a couple of months away from NBA motion, he’s at the moment representing (and thriving with) Portugal’s nationwide workforce, which is taking part within the FIBA World Cup qualifying video games.
On Friday, Queta tallied 16 factors (on 5-10 FG) and 9 rebounds in 24 minutes in a 95-89 win over Spain (and fellow Celtics teammate Hugo Gonzalez). However he left the sport early after spraining his ankle.
Three days later, Queta put collectively an much more dominant efficiency in a 98-90 loss to Georgia. The Celtics middle scored 20 factors (on 8-10 taking pictures) to go together with 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 blocks, and 1 steal.
Portugal’s summer season qualifying motion now concludes, and Queta will quickly return to Boston, the place Celtics coaching camp is only a few months away. Portugal completed 4-4 in Group Play video games this summer season.
Hugo Gonzalez and Luka Garza have additionally participated within the World Cup Qualifying video games
Hugo Gonzalez, who’s on the Spanish nationwide workforce, has struggled by means of two video games. In Spain’s loss to Portugal, he completed with 3 factors and three rebounds, and was a team-worst -23 in his 23 minutes.
Then, in Spain’s 108-106 loss to Greece, he completed with 3 factors, 3 rebounds, and three turnovers. Spain was outscored by 14 factors in his 11 minutes on the ground. Spain completed 5-3 in Group Play video games this summer season.
Luka Garza, who’s on the Bosnian nationwide workforce, has been productive by means of two video games. On Friday, he tallied 14 factors and seven rebounds in a 78-73 loss to Lithuania. Then, on Monday, he completed with 10 factors and seven rebounds in 12 minutes off the bench in a 78-76 win over Italy. Bosnia completed 3-5 in Group Play video games this summer season.
All the motion is to find out which nations will qualify for the 2027 FIBA World Cup, which can happen between August 27 and September twelfth in Qatar. In complete, 32 groups will qualify: seven groups from FIBA Americas, seven groups from FIBA Asia/Oceana, 5 groups from FIBA Africa, and 12 groups from FIBA Europe. Qatar robotically qualifies because the host nation. Qualifying motion continues in November.
