Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
There were no big surprises when the All-Star Game starters were announced on Thursday. Four Los Angeles-based players will start for the West, while two Celtics and two Heat players earn the nod for the East.
The same 10 players who have lead most of the voting for the 2013 NBA All-Star Game will be the starters in Houston. The lineup was unveiled on TNT Thursday evening, and there ended up being no surprises.
In the Eastern Conference, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were joined by Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo, with Carmelo Anthony rounding out the starting unit as the only non-member of the Heat or the Celtics.
Out West, it was a similar story, as Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant made it four L.A.-based players around Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant.
The only possible drama in the announcement came from the second guard spot in the West, where Jeremy Lin made a late push to unseat Paul. But while many fans may not have forgotten "Linsanity," his inconsistent play for the Rockets next to James Harden meant that there was little on-court reason to vote the PG into the All-Star Game. Lin ended up finishing 45,000 votes behind Paul for the second West guard spot. Chris Bosh finished 25,000 votes behind Garnett for the third East frontcourt spot.
For the first time, voting was done through "frontcourt" or "backcourt" spots, rather than the previous designations of guard, center and forward. That, however, did not seem to change fan's voting patterns too much, as Derrick Rose and Andrew Bynum, who have yet to play this season, are the only two starters from 2012 who did not make the cut for 2013.
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