The top team in the NBA’s Eastern Conference could be well-represented in Los Angeles next month.
The NBA on Thursday revealed the first fan voting returns on its 2018 All-Star ballot, and four Boston Celtics players made the list of 20 in the East: guards Kyrie Irving and Jaylen Brown and forwards Al Horford and Jayson Tatum.
Irving, who’s averaging 24.4 points and 4.9 assists per game in his first season with Boston, holds a massive lead over all East guards, with more than triple the votes of Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan.
That makes Irving a virtual lock to start at point guard in the 2018 NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 18 at Staples Center — likely alongside former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate LeBron James, who trails only Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokuonmpo among all East vote-getters.
Brown sneaks onto the ballot as the 10th guard, three spots behind ex-Celtic Isaiah Thomas, who just made his Cavs debut Tuesday night after missing the team’s first 36 games.
Horford and Tatum rank sixth and seventh, respectively, among East forwards. That’s a notable achievement for Tatum, a 19-year-old rookie who just was named Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for December.
Here are the voting results from the Western Conference, which saw two Los Angeles Lakers rookies, Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma, crack the ballot:
Of course, fan voting only accounts for 50 percent of the entire All-Star vote, as media voting and player voting are allocated 25 percent apiece. There also are 11 days remaining in the voting process, which concludes Monday, Jan. 15, at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Fans can vote for players here or on Twitter by using the #NBAVote hashtag.
