Go ahead, knee-jerk basketball critics, have your doomsday reaction to the San Antonio Spurs’ stunning loss of Tony Parker. Write them off at your reputational risk.

“To think that would be nuts,” P. J. Carlesimo said when asked if Parker’s potentially career-threatening injury, combined with the fading influence of the 39-year-old Manu Ginobili, one season after the retirement of the great Tim Duncan, could mean the end of the Spurs as we have known them.

The Spurs have pretty much been — with five championships and two decades of regular-season excellence in the books — the N.B.A.’s version of the New England Patriots.