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Nobody who watched Deron Williams, Kyle Korver and Richard Jefferson play for the Jazz in this decade will ever forget how they were involved in Cleveland's 86-point first half in Friday's Game 4 of the NBA Finals vs. Golden State.

Never mind that Jefferson's six points accounted for the entire first-half production of the three former Jazzmen. And even if it required the Cavaliers playing out of their minds, Cleveland's 137-116 victory showed that the Warriors are occasionally beatable. Other NBA teams, including the Jazz, should take whatever sign of hope they can find regarding the prospect of competing with those guys in the coming years.

"They've shown how clearly dominant they are, and we're realistic about that," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said recently on The Vertical podcast, citing "significant space between them and who's behind them."

Golden State likely will regroup and claim the championship in Monday's Game 5 at home, not that the Warriors have experience with such things this season. They missed their chance to finish 16-0 in four playoff series, including a sweep of the Jazz in the Western Conference semifinals. Yet they've sufficiently dominated this NBA postseason to create reasonable fears of not allowing anyone to come close to them any time soon.

What can the Jazz do to catch up to the Warriors in the West? My answer: They don't have to — not immediately, anyway. Some sense of futility is pervading the NBA, with Golden State positioned to reign for a long time. Am I the only person who believes in degrees of success, though?

The Jazz can keep making progress in the next few years without winning a championship or even playing in the NBA Finals. They may continually run into the Warriors in the playoffs, and those defeats might become as discouraging as when the Jazz teams of Williams and Korver lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in three straight seasons.

None of those meetings came in the Western Conference finals, though. And the Jazz regressed in each series with the Lakers, losing in six, five and four games. The baseline of being swept by the Warriors this season at least allows for improvement.

Prior to Game 7 vs. the Los Angeles Clippers, Snyder knew the Jazz could win a playoff series for the first time in seven years. He also joked that if they won, the focus would turn to the next checkpoint of failure.

Here it is: As of the 2018 playoffs, it will have been 10 years since the Jazz won even one game in the West semifinals.

That goal seems modest at the moment. But to make it easily achievable, the Jazz have to keep Gordon Hayward in free agency and they have to defer a playoff meeting with the Warriors until the conference finals.

The Salt Lake Tribune staff has proposed some creative solutions to replacing Hayward. Sorry, none of them interests me. If he re-signs with the team, I'll be intrigued about how the Jazz can keep building around him and how internal improvement with the likes of Rodney Hood and Trey Lyles can enable them to make up some ground with Golden State.

But if not? I'm shuddering.

"If Gordon doesn't come back, I don't think it's something that we're not doing as much as it's a situation where he feels that there's something else he wants," Snyder said. "Obviously, it would be disappointing. You hope that's not the case."

Snyder returned after a few weeks in Central America to discover that nothing had changed in the NBA, regarding Golden State's reign. And all anyone can do around here is agonize for three more weeks about Hayward's future.

The latest, breathlessly reported developments? The Jazz sent balloons to Hayward's daughter Bernie for her second birthday, and his wife thanked them via Instagram (Yes!). Other NBA executives say the Jazz are equally worried about Miami and Boston in the pursuit of Hayward (Oh, no!).

That's where we stand, going into presumably the last game of the season Monday, after Cleveland's Game 4 breakthrough extended the series and altered the picture only slightly. Williams finally scored in the Finals on Friday, joining Korver and Jefferson in a 16-point, ex-Jazzman contribution to Cleveland's 137 total.

The Cavs are still down 3-1 in the series, although they've done what nobody in the West could do against the Warriors in the playoffs. The Jazz will go into 2017-18 with major separation between themselves and Golden State. But if they're trying to close that gap without Hayward, catching up to the Warriors will be far from their biggest problem.

Twitter: @tribkurt