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Carmelo Anthony rained in 45 points to give the Denver Nuggets a 128-112 win over the Indiana Pacers in an NBA exhibition game in Beijing.

While the Nuggets' victory was assured well before the final buzzer, the near sellout crowd of some 15,000 remained enthusiastic to the end, a testament to the NBA's goal of building global support while the league suffers declining revenues in the United States.

The two teams had played in Taipei three days earlier, with the Pacers coming out on top 126-104.

"After the game in Taiwan... we really wanted to come back and kind of redeem myself," said Anthony, who was returning to the same Wukesong Arena where he helped the US team win gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"Tonight was just one of the nights I had it going - shots were falling, and playing defensively as a team. What better place to do it than here in Beijing where I got a gold medal last year."

The NBA is hugely popular in China and is the league's most important market outside the United States. The league has also scheduled overseas exhibition games in Spain, London and Mexico.

The Pacers struggled on Sunday after getting into foul trouble, with Danny Granger ejected in the second quarter on technical fouls, and Dahntay Jones fouling out in the fourth.

"When you lose an All Star, it's going to impact what you do on the court," Pacers' coach Jim O'Brien said of Granger.

The crowd had no clear favourite, cheering wildly for each team's slam dunks and three-pointers. The cheerleading troupe and trampoline somersault antics of the travelling acrobatic group during breaks received as hearty a response as some of the best plays on the court.

Before the game, the NBA and Chinese Basketball Association announced an agreement to exchange coaches, trainers and nutritionists as a way of fostering their relationship and improving the level of basketball in China.

NBA Commissioner David Stern said an undisclosed number of Chinese coaches would be invited to spend a full season with NBA teams to learn coaching techniques.

"Our colleagues at the CBA have indicated to us that their most important subject is the improvement and growth of basketball at all levels," Stern said.

"We decided to leave for another day discussion of a potential collaboration on the subject of a league."

Reuters