Before the league's annual Christmas Day quintuple-header tipped off, the NBA released results of the first returns of All-Star voting.

Given the two-guard, three-frontcourt voting format, the first returns would see Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis, Kobe Bryant, Blake Griffin and Marc Gasol start for the Western Conference, with LeBron James - the league's leading vote-getter at the moment - joined by John Wall, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Pau Gasol in the East.

Fans can continue to vote until balloting concludes on Jan. 19, with starters for the Feb. 15 game in New York set to be announced on Jan. 22.

The only real surprise is that Kevin Durant sits fifth among Western Conference frontcourt players and 16th overall in voting after the first returns. Gasol is absolutely a deserving starter, and Durant's limited action this season obviously played a part in early voting, but the league's marquee stars are usually immune to injuries affecting their All-Star voting performance.

James Harden deserves the start out West, as the MVP candidate is on pace to become just the third player in NBA history to average at least 25 points, six assists, six rebounds, a steal and a block in a single season, but it's likely wishful thinking to expect any West guard (besides Curry, who leads West voting) to catch Kobe Bryant.

Kobe's averaging nearly 25 points per game as a 36-year-old and he did recently passed Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list, but he's attempting more than 22 shots per game despite a horrendous, career-low Effective Field Goal Percentage of 40.5 and has been a net-negative for the 9-19 Lakers.

Nevertheless, the Lakers legend can probably expect a starting nod from the fans until the day he retires, regardless of his performance.