Updated Jan. 22, 2026, 11:42 a.m. ET

BOSTON — Last season, championship chatter was commonplace for the Boston Celtics. Everything revolved around the Green Team’s quest for back-to-back titles, which fell short due to an early exit in the 2025 Eastern Conference Semifinals. And while title talk isn’t quite as frequent during the Celtics’ 2025-26 campaign, that doesn’t mean it went away behind the scenes.

Following the Celtics’ 119-104 win over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night, center Neemias Queta — who finished the game with 17 points, 9 rebounds, and a season-high 5 blocks — emphasized that winning it all is still the goal in Beantown, regardless of what low expectations were placed on them during the offseason by pundits and outsiders.

“We play for the Celtics, anything else than a championship, it’s not going to go — we’re not happy with (anything else),” Queta said in the locker room.

There was technically some indirect discussion of championships going around the locker room after the double-digit victory, as a few members of the Celtics were conversing about the NFL’s upcoming AFC and NFC Championship Games while reporters huddled around Celtics star Jaylen Brown (and then Queta). This chatter, and the palpable championship fever in Massachusetts stemming from the New England Patriots being only one win away from the Super Bowl, didn’t influence the immediate thinking of the Celtics, though. They were already aiming for a title long before the Pats inspired the region.

For proof, just look at point guard Payton Pritchard’s summer interview with NBC Sports Boston insider Chris Forsberg. The reigning Sixth Man of the Year declared that the 2025-26 Celtics had much bigger dreams than tanking for a lottery pick.

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“We’re trying to win a championship,” Pritchard revealed back in August. “It’s not even about playoffs, we have one standard in Boston and it’s to win a championship.”

These comments may have seemed bold to some and even preposterous to others at the time, but Pritchard clearly wasn’t just speaking for himself. The Celtics — without star forward Jayson Tatum healthy — hold the second seed in the Eastern Conference and are 27-16 overall ahead of the All-Star break.

“Start of the season, expectations weren’t high, but these guys came in and worked day in and day out,” Brown said of his teammates. “Last year, we finished second in the East. We’re halfway through the season and we’re second in the East. So, that’s just a testament to the work ethic, the resiliency of our head coach, of our leadership. And it’s a testament to where we are right now.”

Few thought the Celtics would reach such heights given their losses of former starters and other key pieces in the offseason, yet they have managed to simultaneously ignore and overcome the expectations surrounding them.

Whether the C’s can actually realize their championship aspirations remains to be seen. However, the likelihood of Tatum returning to action this season has only grown since the new year, and adding a six-time All-Star to an already overachieving team seems like a recipe for success.

Tatum or not, Queta, Pritchard, Brown, and the rest of the Celtics believe in their championship potential.

“Everybody in that locker room will have the goal of competing for a championship,” Pritchard said long before Tatum coming back felt possible. “And we will do everything in our power necessary to go for that.”

Meeting the high standard they set for themselves will first require developing winning habits during the regular season, which is a demanding process that’ll continue for the Celtics on Friday night during an Atlantic Division showdown with the Brooklyn Nets.

“The main goal is to stay with it until the moment comes,” Queta stated. “But (we’re) living in the moment (while) thinking big picture.”

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