The NCAA Tournament is unique in sports — a fast-paced, single-elimination, battle of the best, in which anything can and often does happen.

Imagine if the NBA playoffs were like the NCAA tournament, with the 16 qualifying teams facing off every other night. You win, you move on. You lose, you go fishing. That would be madness, right?

Thankfully, the NBA playoffs is a series of best-of-seven trials. So while a lesser team can have a good outing or two, the better team should usually prevail.

Starting tonight, the Spurs embark on the closest thing you’ll find to March Madness in the NBA, or what Jeff McDonald considers “a gantlet (sic) that feels like some kind of NBA-sanctioned fraternity hazing prank.”

McDonald calls the next three Spurs games, “Hell Week.”

But it’s really much worse than that. Over the course of the next three weeks, the Spurs play 12 games against some of the best teams in the league.

This is playoff basketball in March, only worse, since the outcomes will determine who makes the playoffs, and who plays who in the first round.

Let’s call it Hell Month. Or March-April Madness. Or NBA Insanity. Or the Revenge of David Stern.

Seriously, I can’t recall a Spurs team, or any team for that matter, ever having such a difficult stretch of regular season games:

  • 3/27 vs Denver Nuggets (3rd in the West, 4th overall)
  • 3/29 vs Los Angeles Clippers (4th in the West, 5th overall)
  • 3/31 vs Miami Heat (1st in the East, 1st overall)
  • 4/1 at Memphis Grizzlies (5th in the West, 6th overall)
  • 4/3 vs Orlando Magic
  • 4/4 at Oklahoma City Thunder (2nd in the West, 3rd overall)
  • 4/6 vs Atlanta Hawks (6th in the West, 13th overall)
  • 4/10 at Denver Nuggets (3rd in the West, 4th overall)
  • 4/12 vs Sacramento Kings
  • 4/14 at Los Angeles Lakers (8th in the West, 15th overall)
  • 4/15 at Golden State Warriors (6th in the West, 10th overall)
  • 4/17 vs Minnesota Timberwolves

For those who weren’t keeping score, that adds up to:

  • games against the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th best teams
  • 9 out of 12 games against playoff teams, 5 of which are on the road

To put this into context, during the same period the Thunder will play 6 playoff teams, but two of those are against the East’s #8 seed Milwaukee Bucks. Only three of the six will be on the road.

The Heat will face 6 playoff teams, only two of which will be on the road.

Manu Ginobili has said:

“We are facing three of the best six teams in the league, and we’re not playing that well. It’s going to be a tough week. Hopefully, we start to do better and have a successful week.”

Saying that the home strech of the Spurs regular season is “tough” is a bit of an understatement. This will be a gut check of the highest order.

If the Spurs can win a majority o these games, and stay healthy, it’s fair to think a 5th title is within reach. If not, well, it’s anyone’s guess.

Hell Month begins tonight with the Spurs playing the Denver Nuggets.

Go Spurs Go.