John Wall 5th, Bradley Beal 9th among East guards in first round of 2018 All Star balloting

The NBA released the first ballot returns for the 2018 All-Star Game on Thursday, and based on the early votes, it looks like it will be difficult for either John Wall or Bradley Beal to get a starting spot in the game.

Below are the top vote-getters at guard in the Eastern Conference from the NBA’s press release:

1. Kyrie Irving - 802,834
2. DeMar DeRozan - 259,368
3. Victor Oladipo - 251,886
4. Ben Simmons - 210,085
5. John Wall - 175,990
6. Dwyane Wade - 165,163
7. Isaiah Thomas - 87,680
8. Kyle Lowry - 85,070
9. Bradley Beal - 71,079
10. Jaylen Brown - 51,562

Wall still has an outside shot of catching Simmons, Oladipo, and DeRozan to get that second starting spot, but Beal would need to more than triple his current vote total just to have a chance at getting a boost from media and player voting, which accounts for the other 50 percent of voting that determines All Star starters.

Odds are, both Wall and Beal will need to rely on the coaches to select both of them as reserves in order to get in. They both have strong cases, but things have gotten more complicated thanks to emergence of Victor Oladipo and the inclusion of Ben Simmons as a guard instead of a forward.

The NBA will release another round of returns on Thursday, January 11, followed by the unveiling of the starters on January 18. Reserves will be named on January 23.