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Stoudemire’s spot turned out to be the most vulnerable; he nipped San Antonio’s Bruce Bowen — who isn’t even starting for the Spurs right now — in the starters’ balloting by 68,031 votes.
Plenty of late voting helped shape the West starting five.
The league’s next-to-last voting update, released on Jan. 22, showed Denver’s Carmelo Anthony — who’s currently sidelined with an injured right hand — ahead of Stoudemire by 10,431 votes, plus Houston’s Tracy McGrady leading by a 157,063-vote margin over Paul.
Neither lead held up.
Paul wound up prevailing by nearly a half-million ballots, and Stoudemire took his appeals directly to voters.
Stoudemire launched an Internet campaign — www.vote4Amare.com — and Anthony said Thursday he probably would have given him the spot anyway.
“He’s in Phoenix,” Anthony, who finished fifth among West forwards behind the starters, Bowen and Houston’s Ron Artest, told The Denver Post. “It’s his All-Star game.”
In all, five players (Howard, James, Bryant, Wade and Duncan) all topped Yao’s previous record vote mark.
“It’s always an unbelievable honor, because there’s so many great players in this league and so many young guys coming in, when you get named a starter from the fans,” Wade said.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
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