The Brooklyn Nets defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 91-77 on Saturday to conclude a pre-season China tour that leaves behind big questions over the future of a key market worth billions of dollars to the NBA. The two-game tour was thrown into disarray, with all public appearances cancelled other than the matches, after the league found itself at the centre of a raging US-China dispute over democracy and free speech. Despite the controversy, the teams have been embraced by Chinese fans at the first game on Thursday in Shanghai, also won by Brooklyn, and game two Saturday in the southern city of Shenzhen near Hong Kong.