LeBron James scored 33 points on 12-of-22 shooting in 40 minutes on Sunday. It wasn't enough, as the Los Angeles Lakers lost 113-107 to the Miami Heat at FTX Arena.

This has been a subplot of the Lakers season: LeBron puts the team on his back, and the Lakers lose. By his own admission, this is not part of his plan. It was never the Lakers' intention.

LeBron (and Anthony Davis) pushed for the Russell Westbrook acquisition last summer with the vision of having a third star — one with an unmatched game-to-game motor — shoulder the burden on random regular-season nights, especially when LeBron or Davis wants to chill or has to miss time (they've missed 32 games combined, while Russ has missed zero). Multiple Lakers players talked about this at Media Day and after signing in free agency.

Instead, Westbrook has been underwhelming while 37-year old LeBron is scoring more than he has since his first stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

In his 19th NBA season, James is averaging 29 points per game — second in the NBA — and is fourth in the league in minutes per game (36.6). He's scored at least 25 points or more in 17 straight contests — every one since Anthony Davis sprained his MCL on Dec. 17 (he's due back imminently). He's averaging 32.5 points on 53.4% shooting since AD's injury.

Yet, the Lakers are 7-10 in that stretch and 1-7 against top-tier playoff teams. They're 10-11 in games when LeBron scores over 30 points, with most of those wins coming against weaker competition. After the Lakers' Christmas Day loss to the Brooklyn Nets, interim coach David Fizdale openly lamented that Los Angeles was “wasting” LeBron's vintage brilliance.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1zIWCJzCaQN8MNkj6CE5Ss?si=b5ddf1b723974e2e

On Friday, against his former team, LeBron was stellar on offense from start to finish. However, his teammates (and him, defensively) fatally dug themselves a hole with subpar effort and defensive execution (perhaps predictable following a free Saturday in South Beach, and, you know, the entire season thus far). The Lakers collectively came out flat and fell into a 26-point second-half deficit before waking up. They surged in the fourth quarter — as they did on Xmas — and cut the game to four points in the final minute. It was too little, too late. Los Angeles dropped to 23-24.

Since December 1st, LeBron is averaging 30.3 points, 8.7 rebounds, 6.2 assists on .532/.371/.759 shooting splits. After the Magic win, he became the fourth Laker in history to score 25+ in 16 straight contests. Earlier this month, he eclipsed Michael Jordan as the oldest player to drop 25+ in 10 straight outings.

LeBron — who often says he doesn't think about minutes, which the Lakers say they want to monitor responsibly — insists his incredible scoring run isn't a conscious decision, nor overly burdensome.

“That’s just how the game’s been going,” LeBron said after the Heat loss. “I don’t need to score 30 a night. I’m in one of the best zones offensively I’ve been in in my career and I don’t plan on stopping it. That’s just how I feel. I feel fantastic. Shooting the ball extremely well from the field … Shooting efficient from the free throw line. I’m shooting efficient from the field. Very efficient at the rim. So, I don’t go into the game saying, ‘Oh, you gotta score 30 or you guys don’t have a chance to win.’ I just play the game. The scoring has just been happening organically. So, ‘workload?’ I don’t know. I was 18 years old saving a franchise, so I don’t understand.”

Even when AD returns, LeBron said he doesn't plan on altering his approach. Regardless, the Lakers hope Davis' presence will lift up the defense, boosts the team's energy, and ease LeBron's duties.

“Anthony helps in all ways, and that's definitely one of them — to spread out some of the load,” Frank Vogel said. “But LeBron feels good with the load that he's been carrying. We continue to communicate with him, if it's too much within his minutes and the total minutes, and he's felt in a good rhythm.”

LeBron knows his body more intimately than anybody else. And he knows how to read the flow of a basketball game better than maybe any person in the history of Earth. In the past, he's stated that his body responds better by playing consistently than by being extra-cautious. I'm certainly not going to doubt him. That would make me a fool, you see. Objectively, though, neither the Lakers' nor LeBron's plan for the 2021-22 season was for him to be one of the game's most voluminous and taxed scorers.

47 games in, James is carrying one of the heaviest loads of his career, yet the Lakers aren't moving up the standings nor progressing in the chemistry department. Not how they drew it up.