CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Avery Bradley's goal coming into this season was to expand his all-around game.

So far, so good, as Bradley showed Saturday night.

The seven-year veteran guard erupted for 31 points and pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds, saving his best for the game's critical moments, as the Boston Celtics beat the Charlotte Hornets 104-98 at the Spectrum Center.

Bradley hit eight 3-pointers, going 8 of 11 from 3-point range and 11 of 19 from the field. He scored five points in a 15-2 run midway through the fourth quarter that allowed the Celtics to pull out to a 14-point lead. Then he delivered the final dagger with a 3-pointer with 50.1 seconds left that pushed an eight-point lead to 11.

"My mindset this year is to try to expand my game," Bradley said. "Rebound the ball, pass the ball, help out others, go to the basket. I'm just trying to improve my game. I work on it every single summer and now I need to put it in the game."

Bradley's eight 3-pointers were a career high. For the game, the Celtics were 15 of 31 from 3-point range.

"I had some opportunities to make some plays for our team and I'm happy I was able to knock down some shots," Bradley said. "I feel like it opened up the floor for us and helped us move the ball. Once we started moving the ball it's like they couldn't really guard us."

The win allowed the Celtics (2-1) to bounce back from a frustrating 105-99 loss at Chicago on Thursday night when they were outrebounded 55-36. They owned a 42-38 edge on the glass on Saturday night. They also held the Hornets to 40.5 percent shooting from the field and limited the Hornets to 9-of-32 shooting from 3-point range.

"We all wanted to make up for how we played the other night," Bradley said. "We know we didn't play as well on the defensive end as we should have, so we wanted to be aggressive tonight and make sure that we were pressuring the ball."

The Celtics led by as many as 14 in the first quarter as they hit five of their first six 3-point attempts. They went on to lead 28-19 after one quarter and 44-41 at halftime. The Hornets staged a furious rally near the end of the third quarter and led 72-71 going into the fourth, but that lead was short-lived. Bradley scored five straight points to push a 78-77 Boston led to six, and the Celtics went on to push the lead up to 93-79 with 4:22 remaining.

Charlotte never got closer than six at the end.

"I thought we were locked in tonight, especially that first group, the way they rebounded and defended and everything else," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. "We needed to be. That's a really good team we played tonight. Both teams were flying around challenging shots and making plays, and our guys were really locked in."

The Celtics also got 24 points from guard Isaiah Thomas and 14 points from center Al Horford.

The Hornets (2-1) had been hoping to start the season 3-0 for the first time in franchise history. They played from behind most of the night, though, and never really had an answer for Boston's guards.

"Avery Bradley was terrific, especially in the stretch where they got a little bit of a cushion, which ended up being the difference in the game," Hornets coach Steve Clifford said. "They're a good team. They played well. You can see why people are saying they'll be in the top two or three in the East. I thought we did some good things, but I was really disappointed in our defense in the second half. When you play defense, there's a way to do it. When guys start making their own stuff up, you have no shot against a good team, and that's what happened tonight."

Kemba Walker led the Hornets with 29 points, although many came after the Celtics had the game in hand. The Hornets also got 12 points from Nicolas Batum and 11 off the bench from Frank Kaminsky. But Charlotte's starting frontcourt of Marvin Williams, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Cody Zeller were a combined minus-35 in the plus-minus.

"It all starts on the defensive end for us, especially with those talented guards they have with Bradley and Thomas," Zeller said. "They kind of got going there in the second half. When they are rolling, when they are getting easy buckets, easy jumpers, it's going to be tough for us to win."

Notes: This was the Hornets' first regular-season game at the Spectrum Center, which was formerly known as Time Warner Cable Arena. ... Charlotte was playing its first back-to-back of the season after winning at Miami 97-91 on Friday night. The Hornets will play only 12 sets of back-to-backs this season with an extremely friendly schedule. ... Boston was without F Kelly Olynyk (right shoulder rehab) and G Marcus Smart (left ankle sprain). ... The Hornets were without C Roy Hibbert (right knee soreness) but got F Frank Kaminsky back for the first time this season. Kaminsky missed the first two games with a foot injury. ... Charlotte will get a three-day break before returning to action Wednesday against Philadelphia at home. ... Boston will return home to face Chicago on Wednesday.