The last day for online voting for the 56th NBA All-Star starting line-up was last Sunday and the starters for the game will be announced on Thursday. Reserves picked by coaches will be unveiled Feb. 1.

Yao Ming

The fourth set of preliminary results showed Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets leads the Western Conference in votes and LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers tops the Eastern Conference.

In the Western Conference, Kevin Garnett of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs are poised to start at forward, especially since Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki is well over 100,000 votes behind Duncan in third place. But Nowitzki will almost certainly make it as a reserve as he has in years past.

Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and Tracy McGrady of the Houston Rockets are the top vote-getters at guard for the West, however, new Denver Nugget Allen Iverson was just 30,000 votes behind McGrady (the votes Iverson got while in Philadelphia carried over to the West when he was traded).

And at center, Yao leads all players with over 1.77 million votes cast in his favor, but injuries cast doubt on if he'll suit up for the West. Amare Stoudemire of Phoenix is in a distant second.

In the Eastern Conference, Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat and Vince Carter of the New Jersey Nets are the top guards, while James and Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors are the likely starts at forward. Shaquille O'Neal of the Heat easily has the most votes of any East center, but he, too, is currently out with an injury.

The All-Star Game will be held Feb. 18 in Las Vegas, and will air on TNT.