With only one participate all Saturday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers newest addition, Larry Nance Jr, showed major bounce in the dunk contest.
Donovan Mitchell won the slam dunk contest, but the Cleveland Cavaliers backup forward, Larry Nance Jr, came in second and had arguably the best dunk of the night.
A TNT analyst, following Mitchell’s phenomenal final dunk, called Larry Nance Jr.’s pass off the backboard to himself “the best dunk of the night.” It wasn’t just the analyst that believe that though. HoopsHype’s Alex Kennedy and many others voiced their opinion of Nance’s dunk on Twitter.
Not only did most think it was the best dunk of the night, teammate Jordan Clarkson, who was traded with Larry Nance to Cleveland, showed his love for the dunk on Instagram. This was Nance’s only perfect dunk (obtaining a perfect score of 50) of the night.
https://twitter.com/LegionHoops/status/965068153288994816
This was Nance’s fourth dunk of the night. Two of his first three dunks included his father in some aspect. In his first dunk, Nance changed into his dad’s old uniform, and in his third dunk, Nance received a pass from his dad.
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Both Victor Oladipo and Dennis Smith Jr., who both threw down some incredible dunks, were outed before reaching the final round. The Utah Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell took down Nance with a combined 98 points in his final two dunks, beating out Nance’s 96.
This performance was one for ages and showed us a dunk that could and should be used again for decades to come. In many of Nance’s dunks, his powerful dunking style showed through and, more times than not, seemed to help raise his score.
Nance Jr. just a few weeks ago was a member of the host city’s historic NBA team, the Los Angeles Lakers. Since then, he was dealt to the Cavaliers and has found a role as the team’s main big off the bench. Nance has shown both his dunking ability and overall basketball ability over his two games as a Cavalier.
As for last night, it was just another exactly of how dynamic Nance can be. Outside of LeBron James, Cleveland hasn’t had a young and forceful dunker in quite some time, so seeing Nance excel in the dunk contest should put a smile on every fan’s face.
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Nance had the third best odds to win and ended up just three points shy of taking how the trophy that was originally won by his father.