Boston’s 5 players in 2020 All-Star race hold steady after 2nd returns

The Boston Celtics have five players in the second returns of 2020 NBA All-Star Game voting returns, with as many as three in range to make the game.

The second round of 2020 NBA All-Star Game fan voting returns are in, and there are five Boston Celtics turning in decent results in the East.

All-NBA point guard Kemba Walker has the highest returns of any Celtic, coming in third in the East guard category with 1,331,577 votes.

The UConn product has lost some ground since the first returns to former Celtic and current Brooklyn Nets floor general Kyrie Irving, trailing by about 20,000 votes.

Jaylen Brown trails his teammate in guard voting considerably, currently in seventh place behind the Toronto Raptors Kyle Lowry by close to 20,000 votes with 544,361 votes and ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers’ Ben Simmons by roughly 90,000.

In the frontcourt category, Boston’s Jayson Tatum placed highest for the Celtics, receiving 1,182,663 votes for fifth-most among frontcourt players.

This puts the Duke product a little over 200,000 behind the Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler and well ahead of teammate Tacko Fall’s 543,352 votes for a sixth-place finish.

Veteran forward Gordon Hayward also had a decent showing with 291,608 votes, enough for a an eighth-place finish.

The former Bulldog trails Miami’s Bam Adebayo by about 60,000 votes and is ahead of Indiana Pacers big man Domantas Sabonis by roughly the same number of votes.

While there was some movement among their peers up and down the voting returns since the first returns, all Boston players stayed in their respective places in the interim.

This suggests, barring a surge in fan voting, a Kemba Walker-Jayson Tatum two-bid All-Star game for 2020.

Jaylen Brown could conceivably move into range with a strong month and stronger fan support, but Fall and Hayward are both too far behind to realistically make up the ground.

Fall’s inexperience at the NBA level is also a significant obstacle to his candidacy.

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