Damian Lillard has been putting up some pretty numbers lately, but it may be too little too late to get him into the 2016 NBA All-Star Game. He put up a season-high 40 points against Golden State and scored 17 points in the last three minutes to earn a win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, but these amounted to little more than short breaks in the downpour of a mediocre Portland Trail Blazers season.
Lillard doesn’t seem to be getting the support he needs on the court to close out games. When he’s on, it seems like everyone else is off. The team isn’t jelling quite like it has in the past and it’s getting harder to watch games slip away. But these struggles are what make Lillard’s epic comebacks and scoring streaks all the more dazzling. He refuses to be broken by a disappointing season. He shows up every day and leaves it all on the court, and that’s a characteristic of a true all-star.
For all the shortcomings of the team this year, Lillard is our franchise guy. It would be a shame for him to miss his first All-Star game in three seasons because the team isn’t sitting as high in the standings, but this is a likely cause of faltering support from outside the Blazers community.
Lillard currently sits in tenth place in the standings for guards in the Western Conference. He would need to make it into at least second place, but the numbers are working against him. He’s got 81,035 votes and Russell Westbrook, who currently occupies the second spot, has 479,512. That’s a big gap, and there are only five more days to vote. It may be an insurmountable gap, but we can still show our support by casting a vote.
If you want to vote Dame into the All-Star Game, there are several ways. First is filling out an all-star ballot at the NBA website or on the NBA App. You can also vote by SMS text and on social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram by using a player’s full name or handle and #NBAVote. For full voting instructions, check the official rules page. Voting includes selecting two guards and three frontcourt players, and votes can be cast once daily. Voting officially closes on January 18 at 11:59:59 EST.
In the event that Lillard is left out of the starting lineup by fans at the end of the voting period, he’s still got a chance to make the team via coach’s selection. Since the gap in voting numbers is so large, this is a much more probable scenario as his play is likely to have garnered more attention from coaches scouting the Blazers than from casual basketball fans.
The standings will be updated January 14, so we’ll see then if Lillard has gained any ground. Steph Curry is currently leading the pack for Western Conference guards. The all-around leader in votes is Kobe Bryant, who is looking to make his 18th and final All-Star Team. LeBron James currently leads voting for the Eastern Conference.
The starters will be announced live on January 21 on TNT. The 65th All-Star Game will be played on February 14 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, making it the first All-Star Game to be played outside the United States.
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