BOSTON — For good reason, the individual matchup that many had circled prior to the start of the Orlando and Boston series revolved around whomever the Celtics put on Magic big man Dwight Howard.

But after his strong performance in Boston's win over Chicago, there was also a lot of attention being paid to the power forward matchup between the Celtics Glen "Big Baby" Davis and the Magic's Rashard Lewis.

Chalk up Round 1 for Lewis.

Thanks to a hot hand from the field, Lewis put Baby back in his crib with a combination of short jumpers.

He also was assisted by Davis' early foul trouble, which kept him strapped to the bench as Boston fell into a deep first-half hole.

Lewis finished with a team-high 18 points and seven rebounds, while Davis got to double-figures (12 points) but fouled out late.

It was the second straight big effort from Lewis in the playoffs, who had 29 in the Magic's Game 6 win over Philadelphia to close out the series.

"I've been in this league seven years and all I can say is, 'Wow,' " Mickael Pietrus said of Lewis' performance. "He gave us what we needed when we needed it tonight."

In his second NBA season, Davis has surprised many with how fast he's adapting to the NBA game and putting his skill set to work.

His fouls Monday, though, didn't allow him to show it much.

Davis stepped into the starting lineup after Kevin Garnett's February knee injury, with the coaching staff just hoping he could help them survive until KG's return.

Now that Garnett is likely out for the remainder of the postseason, Davis went into Game 1 knowing his matchup opposite Lewis would have a huge impact on who advances to the Eastern Conference finals.

Davis said it was frustrating not being able to be on the court to try to slow down Lewis late in the game.

"Yeah, it gets frustrating, but we've got to deliver," Davis said. "We can't spot teams 20, 15 points. When you spot teams, we've got to be really accurate."

Celtics Coach Doc Rivers said he actually thought the unit that featured Davis and Brian Scalabrine on the court at the same time was one of the more productive groups of the night.

He said he expects the forward battle to remain important.

"That's a tough matchup; we know that. It is what it is, though," Rivers said. "Baby, for the most part, did a good job when the Bulls went small with (John) Salmons. So at least we have some training for that."