CLEVELAND — The NBA All-Star Game is less than a month away, slated to be played on Feb. 20 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. With Cleveland hosting the events, it would have been fitting to have at least one player representing the Cavs as a starter, but unfortunately, that did not happen.
Both Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland were snubbed as starters in the NBA All-Star game.
Fan voting concluded on Jan. 22 and accounted for 50% of the total vote, with current players and media members splitting the other 50% of the vote.
Despite impressive performances, all-season, neither Allen nor Garland received enough votes to be starters.
This season, Allen is averaging a double-double with 16.1 points and 11 rebounds per game in addition to 1.4 blocks per game. His rim protection and athleticism have helped the Cavs earn the third-highest defensive rating in the league, under just the Warriors and Suns.
Allen was named the NBA’s Eastern Conference Player of the Week in Week 3 and was consistently ranked No. 6 in Eastern Conference frontcourt All-Star fan voting at each new data release.
Garland has become a star this season, notching his first career triple-double while recently boasting a six-game double-double streak. This season, Garland is averaging 19.7 points, 8.2 assists, and 1.3 steals per game.
The Cavs point guard was also recently named the NBA’s Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played Jan. 10-16 and has been in the top 10 vote-getters throughout the All-Star fan vote standing releases.
While Allen and Garland were not among the 10 All-Star starters announced Thursday, they still have a shot at making the roster.
The All-Star reserves will be announced on Feb. 3.
Team captains LeBron James and Kevin Durant will later draft their teams from the pool of starters in the first round and from the reserves in the second round.
