Alex Caruso reclaims rightful spot in top 10 in All-Star game votes in West backcourt

Our long national nightmare is over. Alex Caruso has finally rejoined his Lakers co-stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the top 10 in NBA All-Star Game votes at his position.

Nature is healing. We are the virus.

Now, there are a couple things we should note on this. Caruso does have the fewest votes of any player in any of the top 10s, and there is less than zero chance he is actually going to make the game. Even if he did move in to the top two at his position, players still account for 25% of the All-Star vote, and media gets the other 25% — fans only get 50% of the vote — for the starters in each conference, and Caruso is not going to get the majority of votes from either of those factions. Ditto for the coaches’ votes, which determine the All-Star reserves.

Just like last year, people will grumble about this, but it doesn’t really matter and is all in good fun. Lakers fans are just letting AC know they appreciate him.

In non-Caruso notes, while LeBron James may not want an All-Star game, he is now in first place among all players in the fan vote, overtaking Kevin Durant after finishing second to him last week. But while he is basically a certainty to start, it’s starting to look less certain that Anthony Davis is going to repeat as a starter in the West. He is still in fourth place in the West frontcourt for the second week in a row, and would need to get 100,000-plus more votes than Kawhi Leonard before balloting closes next Tuesday.

There is still time for Lakers fans to pump him up and get him there though, of course. Courtesy of NBA.com, here is how fans can vote:

- NBA.com voting page at vote.NBA.com: Fill out one full ballot per day (per day is defined as once every 24 hours) on vote.NBA.com from a desktop or mobile browser. Fans can select up to two guards and three frontcourt players from each conference when choosing starters.

- NBA App: Access the ballot and vote through the NBA App, which is available on Android and iOS. Fans can fill out one full ballot per day by selecting up to two guards and three frontcourt players from each conference when choosing starters.

- Twitter: Tweet, retweet or reply with a hashtag of an NBA player’s first and last name (#FirstNameLastName) or Twitter handle, along with the hashtag #NBAAllStar. Each tweet may include only one player’s name or handle. Fans may vote for 10 unique players per day from Jan. 28 – Feb. 16.

Or, to make it easy on you, you can just retweet this tweet to help get Davis in:

Voting ends this Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 8:59 p.m. PT. Now THAT is service journalism. You’re welcome.

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