Warriors vs. Sixers: Please don’t get your hopes up

Look, it’s Tuesday. Do yourself a favor and don’t set yourself up for disappointment. Please don’t have positive expectations for this afternoon’s game between the Golden State Warriors and the Philadelphia 76ers, which takes place at 4:00 p.m. PT on NBC Sports Bay Area.

Unless you’re a Sixers fan, in which case hello. Didn’t see you there. Welcome, friend.

Here’s the long and short of it: The Warriors are not good. Not good at all. The Sixers are quite good. Quite good indeed.

And they’re welcoming the return of Joel Embiid, though the team played so well without him that I’m sure this isn’t universally viewed as a positive for them, in the short term.

It will almost surely be an emotional game. It’s the first game that either team has played since the death of Kobe Bryant, so you can be sure there will be a fair share of tributes, including some 8 and 24-second violations taken to start the game, as other teams have been doing to honor Bryant’s two jersey numbers.

The game also takes place in Philly, where Bryant was a high school hoops legend.

So there will be some tears in the crowd, and on the court.

And then there will be a game. And the Warriors will almost surely lose that game.

Go get ‘em anyway, sports.