They might not be in first place in the West or on the top of anyone’s power rankings, but there’s one thing the San Antonio Spurs are surely the best at: flying under-the-radar.

By design, and by virtue of Golden State having the most dominant start to an NBA season in the history of the association, the Spurs have drawn very little attention to their pretty good 22-5 start.

How good is this start? Well, it’s good enough to be the second best start to the season of a Popovich-coached Spurs team. The last time the Spurs looked this great this early was the 24-3 run they made to open the 2010-11 season, in which they finished #1 in the West before tail spinning and crashing into a nuclear power plant, causing an explosion that wiped out half a continent and proved that there is no good left in the world. But that is a tale for another time. Actually, I’d never like to talk about that season again, if you don’t mind.

There is something I do want to talk about regarding the 22-5 Spurs, however, and it’s that second number – the five losses. I’m not mad that the Spurs have five losses at this point in the season, but there’s something about four of those games that really digs at me.

San Antonio lost to Chicago, New Orleans, and Oklahoma City on national TV in what I’d call statement games. Then there was the loss to Toronto, which wasn’t nationally televised, but still had the makings of a big time game.

Here are the things I’d consider before calling a regular ol’ game a statement game:

• Your opponent is tough and they’ll be in the playoffs (bonus points if they’re a conference title contender).

• You’re playing on national television.

• You’re playing in a game that has big divisional race/playoff seeding implications.

• You’re on the road (but playing a great team at home is difficult, too).

• You need to rebound from an embarrassing loss.

The season opener was a double statement game. The Spurs had that first round playoff exit last season, then went out and signed LaMarcus Aldridge among other significant off-season roster moves. They were under the microscope more than they’ve ever been at the start of a season. On the other hand, the Thunder team facing the Spurs that night was completely healthy for the first time since October 2014 and fired their coach in the offseason, so they too had a lot to prove. Ultimately, San Antonio coughed up a seven-point lead in the final four minutes of the game and took the L.

Am I going to sit here behind my keyboard and condemn the Spurs for losing to an extremely talented team on the road to start the season? Absolutely not, that was a completely “acceptable” loss. Still, wouldn’t it have been fun for the Spurs to start out the season with a big win on the road? I think we’d all answer “yes” to that.

A few weeks later, San Antonio visited New Orleans for a divisional matchup on ESPN’s Friday Night Basketball. The Pelicans, who were 1-11 going into the game, ended up beating the 9-2 Spurs by 14 points. Typically, I’d say that a matchup with an opponent ten games under .500 isn’t really a statement game, but the Pelicans are the new Grizzlies – San Antonio had lost three of the four games they played last year, and with the latest loss, have lost four of their last five against New Orleans.

The statement would have been simple: the Spurs aren’t going to let bad teams surprise them and steal victories. Instead… the bad team surprised them. It’s not even so much that the Pelicans are bad (which they are), but that they’re bad AND were decimated by injuries when the Spurs came into town. So of course, some guy named Ryan Anderson who I’d never heard of before comes off the bench and shoots 12-21 for 30 points against the best defense in the NBA.

In the long run, that loss probably doesn’t mean anything, but that game ruined Tim Duncan’s game-with-a-rebound streak and caused me to yell at a TV while nervously eating too many tater tots. And if that’s not bad enough, look at the run-on sentences it’s just caused me to write!

Photo: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

Next, the three-loss Spurs ventured to the mysterious and frozen land of Chicago to take on the Bulls. The Bulls are a weird team, but they are a good team. For example, they slipped past the Spurs by 3 points in their game, but then let Charlotte come in and beat them by 6 points in their own house five days later.

Anyway, San Antonio, with a 3-point lead over Chicago heading into the fourth quarter, disappeared on offense. And that’s what made this loss so frustrating. Against a good team, I think you’ve just got to go for the jugular when you see an opening. But the Spurs just didn’t seem to have the shots in them that night. They managed to keep it close, which I suppose they deserve some credit for, but I don’t think they care much about getting credit for a close loss.

These games happen, but gah, they’re even more frustrating than total “off nights” like the Spurs had in New Orleans.

Most recently, San Antonio (then 18-4) took a disappointing loss in Toronto (then 13-9). I can’t speak to much detail about this game since I don’t live in Canada or San Antonio where the game was broadcast, but the Spurs lost by 3 points and never once held the lead. In fact, they trailed for 46:57, which translates to roughly the entire game.

Still, the Spurs made it close with a run in the final minutes. And again, close is not enough. Another chance to shut down a playoff-bound team (barring any major injuries) on their home court slips away.

Here’s the good news: San Antonio has not lost a game at home this season, and they’ve only lost one game to a Western Conference team. Those two stats are both very important because if the Spurs keep this pace up, they’ll be playing lots of home playoff games against teams that also play in the Western Conference. So maybe I’m only frustrated with these losses because I’m so used to seeing the Spurs treat the Eastern Conference like a high school JV squad. Or maybe it’s because I watched the Golden State Warriors beat Toronto and Chicago with relative ease, and I so desperately wanted the Spurs to prove to the rest of the world that they’re insanely good, too.

But you know what? The Spurs have proved to the world that they’re insanely good. We have no reason to believe they’ll overcome their road woes, and I suspect that by the time annual Rodeo Road Trip comes around, we’ll see just how good of a road team they can be.

So San Antonio doesn’t have a signature win or a win streak of more than six games. What the Spurs do have is the most dominant defense in NBA history, the third best offense in the NBA, a bench that goes just as deep as anyone they’ll see come playoff time, the best coach in the association, and a 22-5 record going into mid-December.

I’d still love to see the team pull off a statement win, but if I have to wait until June to see it, well, I guess that’s something I can live with.