Warrior. Monster. Beast.
Less than a week into Jonas Valanciunas’ tenure as a New Orleans Pelican, the 6-foot-11 center is already being described in the aggressive adjectives reserved for NBA bigs who dominate the paint.
Those labels all applied Monday, when the summer trade addition powered the Pelicans and head coach Willie Green to their first win of 2021-22, behind a 22-point, 23-rebound performance. The native of Lithuania officially posted the sixth 20-20 regular season game of his NBA career (a seventh occurred in the 2021 Western Conference play-in round, when he notched 23-23 vs. San Antonio).