Watch: Bam Adebayo literally wrecks the rim

Adebayo thought he had a free path to the rim when Christian Braun bit on a fake. But perhaps due to the lurking presence of Nikola Jokic, Adebayo's dunk attempt went in and out. Then, perhaps worried about falling, Adebayo hung on the rim, and was whistled for offensive goaltending.

But his effort knocked the rim out of alignment, and chaos followed. First, Jokic tried to repair the rim himself by hanging on the opposite side. While logical, that solution wasn't precise enough to fix the damage.

The Heat sent out multiple officials to work on the damaged rim, busting out everything but a carpenter's level to deal with the damage. Finally, the rim was judged acceptable, but the game was delayed again when a fan behind the Heat bench had to be stretchered out of the arena for medical help.

Adebayo looked like he might have damaged a rim with an emphatic dunk in the second quarter, but that particular hoop survived the assault.

Perhaps due to the extra rest or all the focus on rims, but the end of the quarter was an offensive explosion from Aaron Gordon. He scored seven points in the final 1:12 of the third, scoring on an alley-oop layup, a tip-in and a three-pointer with five seconds left, right in front of Miami's bench.

Denver led by 13 going into the final quarter. Adebayo might not hang on the rim, but the Heat were hanging on for dear life in Game 4.