Houston Rockets: Dwight Howard 2nd in Balloting for NBA All-Star After First-Returns

Credit: Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports

The Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard comes in at second in All-Star voting for the backcourt in the West. Howard has tallied up  295,120 votes so far, putting him behind other starters, L.A. Clippers’ Blake Griffin (292,925), Kobe Bryant (501,215) and the Clippers’ Chris Paul (393,313). A surprisingly low early return for the Rockets big man, but I’m sure that Rockets fans will help increase that number before long.

Jeremy Lin comes in 4th, with  240,404 votes, edging out teammate James Harden who tallied 198,667 votes.  Here is the complete list of votes so far:

For the second year in a row, NBA fans can vote via social media networks, including Facebook and Twitter, and Sina Weibo and Tencent Microblog in China. Twitter voting allows fans to tweet a vote for 10 unique players each day throughout the All-Star balloting period. The tweet must include the player’s first and last name, along with hash tag #NBABallot. Facebook voting allows fans to comment on official league, team, or international NBA All-Star Facebook pages by commenting below the post with #NBABallot and the player’s first and last name. Voters can select 10 unique players per day.

Balloting concludes on Monday, Jan. 20, and starters will be announced live on TNT on Thursday, Jan. 23, during a special one-hour edition of the Emmy Award-winning pregame show Inside the NBA at 7 p.m. ET, featuring Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith. The special will air prior to TNT’s exclusive doubleheader featuring the Los Angeles Lakers at the Miami Heat (8 p.m. ET) and the Denver Nuggets at the Portland Trail Blazers (10:30 p.m. ET).