Lillard 7th Among West Guards In First Round Of All-Star Voting

Voting for which ten players will start the 2018 NBA All-Star Game has been open for over two weeks, though the first returns were just announced by the league Thursday night. And with 148,622 votes, Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard currently ranks seventh among Western Conference guards.Lillard, averaging 25.2 points on 42 percent shooting from the field, 36 percent shooting from three and 93 percent shooting from the free throw line, 6.3 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 1.0 steals in 36.9 minutes per game this season, Lillard finds himself 25,721 votes behind Houston's Chris Paul, who is sixth with 174,343 votes, and 27,805 votes ahead of Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball, who is in eighth with 120,817 votes. Lillard has over 30,000 votes more votes now than he did at this point in All-Star voting last year. Currently in his sixth season after being selected with the sixth overall pick of the 2012 NBA Draft, Lillard has more votes than Phoenix's Devin Booker (91,562 votes), Minnesota's Jimmy Butler (88,009 votes), Cleveland's Isaiah Thomas (87,680 votes despite playing exactly one game so far this season), Toronto's Kyle Lowry (85,070 votes), Washington's Bradley Beal (71,079 votes) and Boston's Jaylen Brown (51,562 votes). However, Lillard finds himself with fewer votes than other guards such as Dwyane Wade (165,163 votes) and Manu Ginobili (231,460 votes).Then again, only the top two vote-getters among Western Conference guards will be named starters once voting ends anyway, and currently those spots are owned by Golden State's Stephen Curry with 735,115 votes and Houston's James Harden with 602,040 votes.Kevin Durant leads all Western Conference vote-getters with 767,402 votes while Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo is the leading vote-getter in the league thus far with 863,416 votes. Boston's Kyrie Irving is the top vote-getter among Eastern Conference guards with 802,834 votes.But fan vote is just one of three ways starters for the 2018 All-Star Game, held February 18 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, will be decided. Fifty percent of the vote goes to the fans, with player vote making up another 25 percent and the media vote making up the remaining 25 percent.  Lillard has twice been named to the Western Conference All-Star team, once by coaches vote and once by being an injury replacement, though he has missed out on the mid-season exhibition in the last two seasons. Voting doesn't end until January 15, so there's still plenty of time to vote for Lillard, CJ McCollum or any of the other players who you think deserve to make the 2018 All-Star Game. Here's all the ways you can submit your votes according to the NBA...• NBA.com voting page at NBA.com/vote: Fill out one full ballot per day (per day is defined as once every 24 hours) on NBA.com/vote from a desktop or mobile browser.  Fans can select up to two guards and three frontcourt players from each conference when choosing starters.  During the five “2-for-1 Days,” (Dec. 31, Jan. 4, Jan 11, Jan. 12 and Jan 15) votes through this channel will be counted twice. • NBA App: Access the ballot and vote through the app, which is available on Android and iOS.  Fans can fill out one full ballot per day and select up to two guards and three frontcourt players from each conference when choosing starters.  During the five “2-for-1 Days,” votes through this channel will be counted twice. • Facebook: Post the player’s first and last name along with the hashtag #NBAVOTE on your personal Facebook account.  Each post may include only one player’s name.  Fans may post votes for 10 unique players per day from Dec. 25 – Jan. 15. • Twitter: Tweet, retweet or reply with an NBA player’s first and last name or Twitter handle, along with the hashtag #NBAVOTE. Each tweet may include only one player’s name or handle.  Fans may vote for 10 unique players per day from Dec. 25- Jan. 15. • Google Search: Search “NBA Vote All-Star” or “NBA Vote Team Name” and use respective voting cards to select teams and then players.  Fans may submit votes for 10 unique players per day from Dec. 25 – Jan. 15. • Amazon Alexa:  To vote via Amazon Alexa, the user must have an Alexa-enabled device, and enable the “NBA All-Star” skill.  To submit a vote, the user can open the skill with, “Alexa, open NBA All-Star,” and then request to vote for his or her player of choice.  Voters can submit a maximum of one player name per request to Alexa.  Users can submit votes for 10 unique players per Amazon account each day from Dec. 25 – Jan 15. • Sina Weibo and Tencent: To vote on Sina Weibo (weibo.com), the user must have a Sina Weibo account.  To vote on Sina Weibo, voters must visit China.NBA.com/vote, and select up to 10 players. To vote on Tencent NBA Community, the user must have a QQ account.  To vote via Tencent NBA Community, voters must visit China.NBA.com/vote, and select up to 10 players.The next vote tally will be released on January 11.