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Sixers Coach Brett Brown Predicts Spurs Over Heat In Finals Rematch

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - For the first time in a long time, the team Brett Brown is coaching will not take part in the playoffs.

Just last year, as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs, Brett Brown was coaching in the seventh game of the NBA Finals. This year, as head coach of the Sixers, one of Brown's biggest wins was a victory over the Pistons to avoid a 27th consecutive loss. Needless to say, it's a different experience than he's used to.

Brown spent over a decade with the Spurs, starting as director of player development in 2002, and then promoted to assistant coach in 2007, including Finals runs in 2007 and 2013.

When asked to predict this year's playoffs, Brown went with two familiar teams, the Heat and the Spurs, who went seven games in last year's Finals.

"I think [the Spurs] are the best passing team they've ever had," Brown told ESPN's Henry Abbot. "And what you're seeing is an emergence of a system and a structure that's gone into hyperspace, with all these winks and blinks and combination of  post and pick and roll and penetration, it's got a Euro-ball feel to it."

"Out of respect, it's hard to not back the champ," Brown said. "I'll give Miami the nod [in the East]."

As for who will win, Brown predicts the Spurs will avenge last year's loss, and beat the Heat.

Watch the entire interview with Brown at this location. 

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