Breaking down second round of NBA All-Star Game voting for Western Conference

We’re still over a month away from the 2022 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland and the second returns for fan voting were officially released on Thursday.

Here’s where the Western Conference currently stands:

The most notable occurrence from last week is the supernova rise in popularity of Memphis guard Ja Morant as he shot up to over 1.6 million votes after having just over 669,000 last week. Morant and the Grizzlies are on a tear as they’re currently riding an NBA best 10-game winning streak. They most recently came out victorious over both the Lakers and Warriors this week, which may have given the young superstar enough national exposure to rise in votes.

Like last week, Warriors guard Steph Curry is the latest vote getter in the west while Lakers forward LeBron James is second. James is notably closing gap, going from trailing by over 500K votes last week to under 100K this week. Nuggets forward and reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic remains at third.

Other notable occurrences is Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins overtaking Clippers forward Paul George for third in frontcourt voting. Also, Lakers forward Anthony Davis and Warriors guard Klay Thompson continue to occupy spaces in the top five of respective positions. Thompson just returned this past Sunday after a two-and-a-half year absence.