The creaky, mediocre Los Angeles Lakers should have seen this coming

Russell Westbrook and Frank Vogel have taken an outsized share of the blame for the Lakers' struggles, but maybe the composition of this team was doomed from the jump

At 37 years old, LeBron James is having one of the best seasons of his 18-year NBA career.

The Los Angeles Lakers star is averaging 28.8 points (his most since 2009-10), 7.6 rebounds and 6.4 assists in 33 games this season, shooting 51.7% from the field, 36.4% from three and 75.4% from the free-throw line, all above his career averages. After a relatively slow start and then an abdominal injury that sidelined him for eight games, James has been an MVP-level player over his last 15 games, averaging 33/9/6 on 53/37/75 shooting splits with 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks.