The first weekend of the NBA playoffs is always one of my favorite sporting events of the year. We get eight "island games," with the Game 1 of each and every series getting its own moment in the spotlight. The casual viewing public gets introduced to teams and players they haven't seen much of before, while the diehards get their best excuse since Christmas to completely ignore their families and responsibilities for roughly 20 hours of hoops.

The back-to-back-to-back-to-back format can be a little daunting over both Saturday and Sunday, so it's normal that not everyone was crazy enough to watch the whole thing (like I was). Just in case you missed some of the action, below are the big takeaways from each game and the weekend as a whole (including our updated projections for each series). Once you've read through, check the "related article" section and skim through our previews for each and every series if you haven't done so already.

For now, post-Game 1 is the time in every series when we re-affirm our predictions, make new realizations, and altogether overreact to every little thing that happened. There’s still plenty of basketball to be played in each series, teams will certainly make adjustments going forward, and we’re bound to think something completely different that we do now in a few days.

Even so, we still learned a lot this weekend. Here are 10 such things.

1. Home court advantage is apparently a big thing in the U.S., not so much in Canada.

@bball_ref, Anthony Davis' 35 points was the highest-scoring career playoff debut for a big man since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1970 (36).

— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) April 19, 2015

His final line of 35 points, seven boards, one assist, one steal, four blocks, 13-for-23 shooting from the field, and 9-for-10 from the line was an absolute gem. This was just the first of many, folks.

Sure, the Pelicans probably don't stand a chance in this series, but sign me up for three to however-many-more games of playoff Brow.

4. Derrick Rose still has some greatness left in him.

@NBAHistory w/ 30 points and 5 3-point FG in his postseason debut @EliasSports pic.twitter.com/i9hiZ690OK

— NBA History (@NBAHistory) April 20, 2015

On the other side of the court, Isaiah Thomas joined Oscar Robertson and his opponent LeBron James as the only players to ever put up a line of at least 22 points, 10 assists, and five rebounds in a playoff debut. Still, the lights shined brightest for Kyrie Irving, as he put his range and ball handling abilities on full display for the whole world to see while propelling his team to victory.

7. The Atlanta Hawks don't have to play well to beat the Brooklyn Nets.

With a team nERD of 41.0, the 38-44 Brooklyn Nets are easily the lowest ranked team from our NBA Team Power Rankings that made the postseason this year. Considering they're facing the 60-22 Atlanta Hawks, our fourth-best team with a nERD of 64.8 (and the highest-ranked in the Eastern Conference), no one really expected this to be a competitive series.

So, don't let the close 99-92 Game 1 score fool you. The Hawks simply weren't in rhythm on Sunday, after spending the last month or so of the season playing meaningless basketball (as they had the 1-seed locked up in late March). The Hawks shot an uncharacteristic 33.3% from deep (10-for-30) -- compared to their 38.0% mark from the regular season -- were outrebounded 47-39, and saw three of their four All-Stars struggle (with Kyle Korver being the exception with 21 points on 6-for-12 shooting from the floor and 5-for-11 from deep, seven boards, three helpers, two steals, and a block).

They'll be fine and this series should still be quick.

8. Beno Udrih had this year's first unexpected "podium game."

The NBA playoffs are often littered with high-level performances from the most unlikely of heroes. The basketball blogosphere and Twitterverse affectionately refer to these performances as "podium games."

Unlike the regular season, NBA playoff games are followed by a period of media availability at a podium by the matches best performers and the coaches. The players that take part are usually the expected All-Stars and starters, but sometimes role players step up and earn themselves some time in front of a microphone. The first such unexpected performance of the 2015 playoffs was Beno Udrih.

Beno came off the bench for the Memphis Grizzlies and helped propel them to a commanding 100-86 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday night, scoring 20 points on 9-for-14 shooting from the floor, while adding seven rebounds and seven assists in 24 minutes played. Considering his season averages of 7.7 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 2.8 assists, I doubt the Blazers saw it coming.

9. If the Clippers starters can play the majority of each game, they might be able to dethrone the champs.

The Clippers' bench is terrible -- to put it lightly. Despite that major shortcoming, Los Angeles was able to beat the defending champion San Antonio Spurs 107-92 in the final Game 1 of the playoffs' opening weekend on Sunday night.

LA's starting lineup of Chris Paul, J.J. Redick, Matt Barnes, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan played a whopping 25.1 minutes together in Game 1 (the most of any lineup put out by any team this weekend by nearly six minutes), and no one on their bench outside of Jamal Crawford (22.6 minutes played) cracked 13 minutes on the court.

The league's top offense (112.4 Offensive Rating, according to our numbers) was on full display in this one and LA's efficiency and athleticism seemed to be too much for the aging and banged up Spurs in the end. Both CP3 (32 points, seven rebounds, six assists) and Blake (26 points, 12 boards, six helpers, three steals, and three blocks) were phenomenal and as long as Los Angeles can maximize their floor time at the expense of regular rotation guys like Glen "Big Baby" Davis and Hedo Turkoglu (yuck), they could very well overcome losing as a rare series underdog with home court advantage.

10. Winning Game 1 isn't everything, but it certainly helps your odds of winning the series.

As is the case with just about every Game 2 ever played, you will soon hear ad nauseum that the team that has won Game 1 in a best-of-seven series in the NBA has gone on to win said series 76.9% of the time. Well, that's the past and doesn't remotely take into account who these teams are, how they perform at home and on the road, etc, etc. Luckily, we've got a more customized way of projecting these series after all those Game 1's. Check it out and enjoy all the Game 2's about to happen over the next few days!