Grizzlies' Ja Morant increases second-place lead in NBA All-Star fan voting
Ja Morant is inching closer to being a first-time All-Star and further away from Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic for second place in fan voting, which ends Saturday.
Morant remains second among Western Conference guards with 2,623,359 votes as the latest returns were released Thursday by the NBA. His total is over 700,000 more than Doncic, who has 1,923,187 votes. That's up from last week when Morant led by more than 222,000 votes.
He now has a strong chance to be the first Memphis Grizzlies player voted in as a starter for the All Star game since Marc Gasol in 2015. Gasol is also the last Grizzlies player to make the team when was selected in 2017.
All-Star game starters will be revealed Jan. 27 during TNT's "NBA Tip-Off" show.
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LeBron James now leads the NBA in the latest fan returns for NBA All-Star Voting presented by Tissot, which concludes this Saturday, Jan. 22.
Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, DeMar DeRozan and James continue to be the top vote-getters at their respective position groups. pic.twitter.com/LBIU5BamC6— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) January 20, 2022
Morant also has the fifth highest total of fan votes in the Western Conference behind LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Nikola Jokic and Andrew Wiggins. He also has the ninth-most votes among all NBA players.
Fan voting compromises 50% of the total All-Star voting. Players and selected media each count for 25% of the total votes.
Morant faced Doncic and the Mavericks last Friday on ESPN, which Dallas won 112-85 to snap the Grizzlies' franchise-record, 11-game win streak. Morant had 19 points and eight assists while Doncic posted a triple-double with 27 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.
However, Morant made a better impression to a national audience on Monday with 25 points in the Grizzlies' 119-106 win over the Chicago Bulls, which was shown on TNT. He followed that up with 33 points and a career-high tying 14 assists in Wednesday's loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Grizzlies (31-16) are currently third in the Western Conference with a one-game lead over the Utah Jazz.
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This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Grizzlies' Ja Morant builds second-place lead in NBA All-Star fan vote
