As Steph Curry keeps racking up wins and mind-blowing highlights, LeBron James is resting an injured back and knee. Not only have those developments drastically altered the MVP race, but they’re influencing All-Star voting, too. In the third returns of balloting for February’s All-Star game, the Golden State Warriors superstar trails his Cleveland Cavaliers counterpart by just 13,285 tallies for the distinction of the league’s top vote-getter.
James has 971,299 votes compared to Curry’s 958,014. The Bay Area maestro trailed the four-time MVP by 20,324 votes in last week’s return, closing the gap this time around by 7,039 counts. Given Curry’s remarkable play over the past week, it’s not hard to see why.
What’s more deserving of All-Star votes: Plays like these?
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Or activity like this:
There were no changes in these returns for either conference among the players positioned as starters. Curry and Kobe Bryant are the West’s leading guards, while Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin, and Marc Gasol pace the frontcourt candidates. John Wall and Dwyane Wade still top guards in their, and James, Pau Gasol, and Carmelo Anthony round the East’s five.
Of special note, though, is that Kyle Lowry has usurped Kyrie Irving as the third-leading guard in the East. The Toronto Raptors star still trails Wade by over 100,000 tallies for a starting spot, but perhaps the threat of Dwane Casey not wanting to risk the chance of their team’s coach getting beaten up. Makes sense to us.
Below are the full voting results, per NBA.com:
What do you think?
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