Bam Adebayo has missed shots on the rim. Friday night, Miss Game 4 of the NBA Finals was delayed.
Adebayo thought he had a free way to the edge when he bit Christian Braun on a fake. But perhaps due to the latent presence of Nikola Jokic, Adebayo’s dunk attempt went in. Then, perhaps worried about falling, Adebayo hung on the edge, whistled for his shot on goal.
But his effort removed the ledge from alignment, and chaos ensued. First, Jokic tried to fix the ledge himself by hanging on the other side. While this solution made sense, it wasn’t subtle enough to fix the damage.
The Heat sent several officials to work on the damaged ledge, hacking everything but the carpenter level to deal the damage. Finally, the rim was deemed acceptable, but the game was again delayed when a fan behind the Heat bench had to exit the arena to get medical assistance.
Adebayo looked like he might have damaged a tire with an emphatic dive in the second quarter, but that particular hoop survived the attack.
Perhaps due to the extra rest or all the focus on the rims, but the end of the quarter was an offensive blast from Aaron Gordon. He scored seven points in the final 1:12 of the third, scoring on an alley-way throw, tip-off and three-pointer with five seconds left, right in front of the Miami bench.
Denver led by 13 in the last quarter. Adebayo may not be hanging on the edge, but the Heat was hanging on for dear life in Game 4.