Larry Nance Jr. dominates in 1st start with Cavaliers

Like father, like son.

Larry Nance Jr. delivered a phenomenal performance in his first game after being named as a starter in the Cleveland Cavaliers' 112-90 win over the Detroit Pistons.

Nance had 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting in his 32 minutes. He also had a career-high 15 rebounds and was a plus-15. Despite being undersized, Nance dominated his matchup against Andre Drummond as he held the uber-physical All-Star to a modest stat line of 15 points and nine rebounds.

Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue turned to Nance in the wake of Tristan Thompson's ankle sprain. Nance was the obvious candidate for promotion, as the Cavaliers are paper-thin in the frontcourt at the moment given injuries to Thompson and Kevin Love.

Nance - who was acquired in Cleveland's trade-deadline deal with the Los Angeles Lakers - will likely return to the bench once everyone is healthy. But Nance did make a convincing case to start on Monday as he set wide screens to get his teammates open, finished everything around the basket, and even flashed a silky mid-range jumper while playing active and diligent defense.