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Bradley Beal fell from 9th to 10th in the second round of fan voting for the 2019 NBA All Star Game.
The second returns of #NBAAllStar Voting 2019 presented by @Google!
— 2019 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) January 10, 2019
Vote on https://t.co/R6fBO5LSAS, the NBA App or by searching for your favorite player or team on Google.
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Beal is now over 20,000 votes behind Goran Dragic, who jumped into ninth despite missing the last 13 games due a knee injury that’s expected to keep him out until the All-Star break.
Even though Beal is once again playing at an All-Star level, and has gotten significantly better in the fourth quarter this season, the team’s struggles have kept him out of the national spotlight this season.
The big thing to keep an eye on now is what happens with the second spot in the East backcourt. Dwyane Wade opened up a bigger lead over third-place Kemba Walker and the rest of the field in this round of voting. If he gets voted in as a starter, it means there will be fewer spots to go around for guards and Beal could wind up being the odd man out in that scenario.
The good news is even if Wade holds on to second in fan voting, it only accounts for 50 percent of the vote in determining starters. The other 50 percent is split between voting by the media and the players. Hopefully, the players and the media will be a little more nuanced with their votes, but if there’s a big groundswell of support among players to get Wade in the All-Star Game one last time for his final season, it might just be enough to keep Walker out of the starting lineup.
We’ll find out for sure when the starters are announced on Thursday, January 24. The reserves will be announced the following week on Thursday, January 31.