CLEVELAND — So this is how it feels to be normal.

Manu Ginobili wishes he still didn’t know. For 40 years of his life and 15 seasons of his NBA career he had been oblivious, and that was just fine with him. There are some experiences a man is fine with missing.

But now Ginobili understands how the rest of the league lives. Now he understands that most teams scratch and claw and pour their hearts into trying to win, but often do not, simply because they are not good enough. Now he understands that for mere mortals, one slip-up can be devastating.

Understandably, this revelation comes as a bit of a shock to the senses, not only to Ginobili but to a franchise and a fan base that has shared in the blissful ignorance of NBA reality for so long.

They are ignorant no more. Four games in a row now, the Spurs have played hard. Four games in a row, they have made more good plays than bad ones. Four games in a row, somebody unexpected in their lineup has played above his head.

But four games in a row, they have lost. And even for an intelligent, levelheaded guy like Ginobili, it can be a difficult adjustment.

“In the past we could make a few mistakes here and there … and we would figure it out,” Ginobili said. “This year it’s getting a little tougher.”

Let’s be honest about why. It’s getting tougher because the Spurs’ roster as currently constituted, with Kawhi Leonard still out and no longer even being counted on for a return, is not elite.

Talent-wise, without Leonard this is not the third-best team in the conference, much less the league. It is a solid team, a formidable group with the capacity to create problems for just about any opponent, and few franchises have established a better system.

But there is little evidence to suggest these Spurs should finish ahead of the Thunder, or the Timberwolves, or the Nuggets, or any of the other solid, formidable groups with the chance to nab the third spot in the Western Conference.

And there certainly is no reason for the Spurs to think they cannot lose to any of those teams even on nights when the Spurs do more right than wrong.

The schedule is full of challengers waiting to pounce, and Pau Gasol sees them coming.

“The margin of error is really small,” Gasol said. “It’s getting smaller and smaller and smaller. The pressure is going to be on. Those guys that are right behind us, they’re right there, breathing down our necks.”

Gasol and the Spurs are aware of how precarious things have become. Heading into Sunday’s showdown with the rebuilt Cavaliers, the Spurs were still clinging to the third seed in the West, but they also were only two games in the loss column out of ninth place.

Considering that they are set to face the league’s toughest second-half schedule, a slide in the standings would not be a shock. But when a reporter suggested Friday night that positioning themselves in the sixth seed might not be the worst thing in the world for the Spurs in the big picture, LaMarcus Aldridge scoffed.

“(Bleep) that,” Aldridge said. “I want third. You can quote me on that.”

Some will laugh at that comment, but it exemplifies the Spurs’ grit more than it speaks to any falling standards.

Aldridge is in the middle of his best all-around season in San Antonio. He has carried the Spurs with Leonard out of the picture, and he has been more productive than anyone could have hoped since he signed a contract extension last summer.

When he said, “I want third,” he did not mean he likes the idea of not finishing first. It meant he was unwilling to settle for anything less than what is now the Spurs’ best plausible regular-season finish.

Say what you will about how he and the Spurs have let a few late-game opportunities slip away — it has not been because of a lack of desire, or a lack of effort. As Gregg Popovich said Friday night, “They’re busting their ass.”

And it is not as though a four-game losing streak has sent the locker room into a spiral of self-doubt or despair. There are reasonable explanations — not excuses — for each defeat. And there is confidence that solutions are well within the team’s grasp.

“Just because you lose doesn’t mean you’re frustrated,” Popovich said.

Perspective helps. After all, considering how often it has seemed like the sky has been falling around the Spurs during the past few months, things could be a whole lot worse.

“It’s true,” Ginobili said. “Sometimes we bounce our heads, and we’re down because we’re not getting as many wins as we want. (But) we’re in third. We’re right there. That’s what every other team in the league fights for.”

The normal ones, anyway.