Spurs hope to break their cycle, for repeat's sake

That's the cycle for the San Antonio Spurs, who have won three of the last five NBA championships without back-to-back titles and again have their backs firmly against the wall heading into Thursday's Game 5 against the Lakers at Staples Center, down 3 to 1 in their best-of-seven-game series.

Championships are tough to win.

Repeating may be even tougher.

"Anyone who's ever won one will tell you how difficult it is," Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich said today, shortly before his team boarded a flight back to California. "If it wasn't difficult, there'd be 15 or 20 or 25 teams that would have championships, but there are very few.

"It's a tough loss and we're dealing with human beings. The players and the coaches are human, and we have to focus because it's a job in the next game in hopes that we can win that game and survive.

"So, you say what's wrong with this picture. We are doing the things we want to do. We are just having trouble at the offensive end, shooting well. Our [shooting] percentages are God awful. That's not something that you go do a drill and fix it. Either they go in or they won't. But we have to continue to play [defense] the way we have and hopefully, the offense will step up."

On Manu Ginobili's offensive struggles...

"I think with our three best players, every championship [year] all three have played well. Manu just happens to be the one that hasn't had as many good games in this series," Popovich said.

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With Tim Duncan and Pau Gasol guarding each other for long stretches of the series, the easy thinking would be that one or the other would be labored with foul trouble.

That hasn't been the case in this series.

"I'm sure that Phil [Jackson] and I are both happy that hasn't happened, but they haven't gotten in foul trouble," Popovich said. "I guess they're both real careful people."

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Spurs forward Robert Horry had his left knee drained this week, and a reporter asked Popovich if it had affected Horry's lift.

"With all due respect to my good buddy Robert, he hasn't had any lift for a few years," Popovich said. "I'm not sure the knee draining did that."

jonathan.abrams@latimes.com