There was a lot of anticipation surrounding Wednesday's matchup between the Boston Celtics and the Brooklyn Nets. Apparently, the Celtics players were very much looking forward to this game as well, and their blistering first-quarter performance was a clear testament to this fact.

The Nets simply did not know what hit them. The Celtics came out firing right off the bat and they never let up. By the time the buzzer signaled the end of the opening 12 minutes of action, Boston had already amassed a jaw-dropping 46-16 lead.

Unsurprisingly, the Celtics' 30-point lead after the opening period sent NBA Twitter into a bit of a frenzy:

There's a lot more where that came from, but you get the point, right? The mean streets of Twitter showed absolutely no mercy to the Nets. To be fair, they sort of brought all this upon themselves with that embarrassing first-quarter showing.

Jayson Tatum led the way for the Celtics in the opening period, dropping 18 points on 7-of-10 from the field to go along with four triples, six rebounds, and an assist. Jaylen Brown chipped in with 12 points on three triples.

To say that the Nets were outclassed in the opening frame would be a huge understatement. This was supposed to be a marquee matchup that saw the return of the always-entertaining Kyrie Irving to his former stomping ground. We all know that Kyrie has a bit of history with Celtics fans and I'm pretty sure they're all happy to see this man crash and burn yet again against their beloved C's.