BOSTON -- You really have to wonder what it will take to slow down these Boston Celtics.

Lose Gordon Hayward for the season in the first quarter of the first game? No problem.

Lose Al Horford to a concussion for a couple of games? No problem.

Lose Kyrie Irving in the first two minutes of Horford's second game out, meaning the entire new Big Three is absent? No problem.

"We're just going to do what we do no matter who we got," Terry Rozier said after his Celtics stormed from 18 points down in the second half and roared to their 11th straight win, a 90-87 decision over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night.

"No matter who we're going to play with, we're going to play hard."

Horford's symptoms have improved but he was again held out -- and Irving took an elbow to the mouth from teammate Aron Baynes 1:50 into the game. He was being checked for concussion symptoms but, according to coach Brad Stevens, had not been diagnosed with a concussion.

The Celtics scored 11 points in the first quarter. They went 9-for-31 from 3-point range, with three of their players -- Rozier, Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown -- combining to miss 33 of their 42 shots from the floor, 14 of their 17 from 3-point range.

They were down 12 at the end of three, then held Charlotte (5-7) to 11 points in the fourth quarter and survived a wild finish to survive, as the Hornets finished an 0-4 road trip.

With journeyman guard Shane Larkin leading the way, the Celtics went on a 14-2 fourth-quarter run to take control of the game -- and Smart played key defense on Kemba Walker as Walker tried for the go-ahead basket in the game's final seconds.

"I think this team has a chance to be one of those teams that just kind of fights through adversity all the way through," said Stevens, who cautioned it's "only 13 games."

Rozier said Stevens told him, when the Celtics were down 15, that they were going to win and that "the place is gonna go crazy."

Larkin finished with a season-high 16 points in 17:21, while rookie Jayson Tatum, playing after leaving the previous game with an ankle injury, scored 16 points, Rozier totaled 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists, Marcus Morris had 14 points and seven rebounds and Brown 10 points and 13 rebounds.

"He (Stevens) said if we just go out there and fight, keep playing the right way, and we start getting things going, there's no funner place to play than in Boston in comeback games," Larkin said. "We went out there. Crowd got behind us. We pulled out a victory."

Said Rozier: "We've been preaching next man up, forever. When our team is dropping like flies, you just got to be ready. Shane did a great job, stepping up, coming in today. Like I said, you just never know, in this league, when your number is going to be called. We did a good job handling that."

Walker scored Charlotte's last eight points and led all scorers with 20 points despite 5 of 19 shooting, 0-for-6 from 3-point range. He also had 11 assists and five rebounds.

The Hornets have played through their share of injuries and absence, but Walker refused to use that as an excuse.

"It's bad, regardless," he said. "Especially the way we lost two nights in a row (to the Knicks Tuesday night). "We're giving up huge leads. We're not maintaining our game. We've got to be better as a whole.

Frank Kaminsky scored all 14 of his points in the first half, Dwayne Bacon had 10 points and Dwight Howard 11 rebounds in the loss.

Howard was 2-for-8 from the floor and 2-for-9 from the foul line, turning the ball over seven times. He was a minus-11.

"It's very tough. It's a game we should have won," said Howard. "We had three games on this road trip that we should have won and let slip away, being careless at the end of the game. It's something we've got to learn."

NOTES: Boston has won five straight games over Charlotte, going 4-0 last season. ... The comeback marked Boston's second from an 18-point deficit during the winning streak. ... Hornets F Michael Kidd-Gilchrist returned after missing three games for personal reasons, started and had eight points and five rebounds. ... Looking ahead at the winning streak, the Celtics host the Toronto Raptors Sunday, visit Brooklyn Tuesday and then have the Golden State Warriors at home Thursday night. ... Boston C Al Horford (concussion) was upgraded to questionable during the day and was feeling better but didn't play. ... Charlotte was missing G Traveon Graham (thigh contusion), while G Nicolas Batum (elbow) is practicing and hopes to return next Wednesday. ... Former Patriots QB Drew Bledsoe was at the game.