San Antonio Spurs denied a repeat title again

Win. Lose. Again, no repeat.

That has been the crack among celebrations for the San Antonio Spurs.

They’ve won three of the last five championships and four of the last nine, with no consecutive titles to their name or era.

The opportunity to again repeat slipped Thursday at Staples Center, first under Kobe Bryant drives and then through purple and gold streamers signaling the end of the Western Conference finals.

Spurs owner Peter Holt is used to victories and vacations at this time of year.

Italy may be a nice option.

“It drives us crazy, but I don’t think we’re disappointed,” Holt said afterward, standing outside the Spurs’ locker room. “We also know what a great run we’ve had and how fortunate we’ve been, so we are going to try to keep it going.”

To keep it going, the Spurs will have to retool and reload an aging team around their longstanding triumvirate of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker.

That, to try and keep up with the Lakers, who proved to be younger, fresher, more resilient and as Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich labeled them, “the better team.”

“Not just them,” Holt said. “You’ve got [the] New Orleans [Hornets], you’ve got [the] Utah [Jazz], you’ve got three or four very young teams who are good teams playing well, that have already been through some tough times, that are very composed.

“That’s what I admired about the Lakers in this series. Their composure was great. Any time we put a run on them, they were just right there ready to come back on us.”

Another year and not another championship.

Popovich said beforehand that the challenge is in winning a championship, not necessarily repeating.

To that end, he added, he never mentions the word repeat.

“Maybe, that’s my problem,” Popovich dryly said. “I don’t know, maybe I should have a big sign that says that every year.”

“The reason you want to repeat is that means you won another championship. I don’t think you go into the year saying we want to repeat. You want to win a championship.”

In the defeat, Holt did manage some solace.

“Let’s face it,” he said. “We were one of the four teams that made it to the conference finals. I guess now, we’re the old guys versus the experienced veterans, but we got here.”

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It was one of the odder subplots of the series – just how physically fit was Ginobili, the Spurs regular-season leading scorer?

While playing with a jammed ankle and torn fingernail, Ginobili’s point totals spiked, then stagnated.

In the lone Spurs win, he scored 30 points. In the other four games, he had 33 points combined.

Popovich reportedly considered sitting Ginobili for Game 2 and as the series wore on, he grew more weary of answering questions about Ginobili’s health.

The answer to Ginobili’s status was still unknown after he concluded the series with a nine-point effort.

Question to Popovich: “Is it fair to ask at this point now that it’s over, what physical condition Manu was in through this series?”

Popovich’s answer: “No.”

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Spurs guard Brent Barry, he of the ill-fated non-call during in Game 4, on the league’s decision to implement fines for flopping: “There goes half of Manu’s contract.”

jonathan.abrams@latimes.com