NBA All-Star voting starts next week; includes '2-for-1 days'

Voting for the 2018 All-Star Game will commence Dec. 21 exclusively on NBA.com and the NBA app, the league announced Thursday. Balloting on other platforms - including Amazon Alexa for the first time - will begin on Christmas Day, during the holiday quintuple-header.

This year's All-Star festivities and voting include some new kinks. For the first time, the game itself will not be a classic East vs. West matchup, but instead feature two teams selected fantasy draft-style by two captains. Twelve players from each conference will still be selected by a combination of fans, players, and select media (fans will account for 50 percent of the vote, while players and media will account for 25 percent each).

Five "2-for-1 Days" will allow fans to have their votes count twice on Dec. 31, Jan. 4, Jan. 11, Jan. 12, and Jan. 15 when voting through the NBA app, NBA.com, and Chinese platforms Sina Weibo and Tencent.

Starters will be announced Jan. 18 on TNT, with reserves named on Jan. 23. The teams will be unveiled on Jan. 25.

The 67th All-Star Game will be played at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 18.