Then again, what speaks more loudly than the cooing fans as LeBron James runs down the open floor with a ball in his hands, or thousands of simultaneous gasps as Anthony Davis sends a shot attempt flying back with a block?

In an effort to suppress the NBA’s voices, the Chinese government tightened the restraints on the league’s annual visit to its country, preventing Adam Silver and employees of the Lakers and Nets from speaking to the media before or after a 114-111 Lakers preseason loss to the Brooklyn Nets. It was the latest screw pressed against the NBA after days of fallout from a single tweet by Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey.

That fallout has also included public statements of outrage, disappearing corporate sponsorships and last-minute cancellations of community events. The weight of the tension has frayed the nerves of the travelling teams, with ESPN reporting Wednesday that players expressed frustration privately to Silver in a closed-door meeting.

Speculation raged that the exhibitions themselves would be cancelled. That Thursday’s game was played at all is representative of two things.

One: The league isn’t eager to end a lucrative relationship with China.

Two: China, for all its bluster, wants the product the NBA offers – and that’s leverage, too.

While one of the stars of the game, Kyrie Irving, suffered an aggravation to a pre-existing face injury in the second minute that led to his immediate benching, James and Davis both played 24 minutes, combining for 36 points to quench the crowd.

The Athletic reported that miniature Chinese flags were distributed outside of Mercedes Benz-Arena to an expected crowd of 18,000, and it was rumored that the start of the game might be overtaken by patriotic songs from the crowd. But in the end, the audience allowed themselves to simply be wowed by athletic feats they can rarely see up close. Even though the broadcast was reportedly blacked out by state-run CCTV, the NBA still carries weight in a nation where an estimated half a billion people watched its programming last season.

While the main-stage stars were benched by the game’s finish, the ending didn’t lack for drama: A free throw by Theo Pinson and a thunderous final-minute dunk by former Laker David Nwaba (six points) were clinchers for Brooklyn. A would-be buzzer-beating three to tie by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was off-target.

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Not that the result mattered: The Lakers were content to tinker with lineups and rotations, starting Caldwell-Pope, Rajon Rondo and Dwight Howard around Davis and James. Rondo was the most successful in the experiment, scoring 18 points with six assists and five rebounds. Following a dominant showing by their bigs at Golden State, the Lakers again outrebounded their opponent and did well to lock up the interior (10 blocks), led by a double-double with five blocks by JaVale McGee.

Where they fell short was perimeter defense: The Nets were 20 for 41 from 3-point range. Even with Irving and Caris LeVert (scratched eye) injured, Spencer Dinwiddie had no problem leading his team with 20 points and 7 assists. Taurean Prince chipped in 18 points.

The teams are set for a rematch in Shenzhen at 4:30 a.m. PST Saturday, and there’s been no indication the media blackout, which has also included cancelling community events, will subside.

But in actually playing a game – a spectacle which China can neither spin nor faithfully imitate on its own – the NBA offered an reminder of its own sway in the partnership.