LeBron James helped Anthony Davis handle New Orleans boos

LeBron James has become a standard setter in the NBA  — for boos and harsh receptions, too.

So nine years after James made his hostile first return to Cleveland as the city’s most hated man, he knew well enough to prepare Anthony Davis for what was coming Wednesday night in New Orleans.

It helped Davis think the welcome back wasn’t all that bad.

“He went through a lot worse from what he told me. I just got boos,” Anthony said after he dropped 41 points to help the Lakers beat the Pelicans 114-110 in his first trip back to New Orleans since forcing a trade out of there. “I think coming in and just worrying about what was on the floor and not what the crowd was saying or whatever. I did hear something during the national anthem. That was the only time; it was super quiet. Other than that, I didn’t really hear much. I actually got some love when I was sitting on the bench from some Pelican fans.”

It wasn’t necessarily anything new for Davis. He had been booed on his own home court last season once his request for a trade became public. The Pelicans had declined to move him, making his presence there awkward, until finally sending him to the Lakers in the offseason.

James got some boos from the New Orleans crowd Wednesday too, but they were mainly reserved for Davis. As someone who had been through it before — albeit in a much different situation, leaving his hometown city without a championship to go form a super team in Miami through free agency — James knew what the game meant to Davis.

“We understood. I mean, any time you go back to a place you’ve made a mark, you started your career … you wanna come back and play well,” James said. “We knew that as his brothers … that goal that he had set.”