Grizzlies' Marc Gasol Scores Career-High 32 Points

Playing in his 437th regular-season NBA game, Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol recorded a career-high 32 points in Wednesday's season-opening 105-101 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves, per NBA.com/Stats.

Gasol's big night—which also included nine rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals—helped the Grizzlies snap a peculiar 13-game losing streak in season openers that dates back to the 2000-01 campaign.

While said streak undoubtedly began with some awful teams in '00-01 (Vancouver), 2001-02 and 2002-03, the Griz were a solid franchise for much of the run, qualifying for the playoffs seven times in 14 years, including each of the last four seasons and three straight times from 2003-04 to to 2005-06.

Gasol, who has only played for one team since debuting in 2008-09, had just one career 30-point performance before Wednesday, having scored exactly 30 points in a March 2009 game against the Philadelphia 76ers, per basketball-reference.com's play index.

Though the Spanish center is known mostly for his defense, passing and rebounding, it's surprising that he hasn't compiled a few more 30-point games, as he averaged better than 14 points per game in each of the last three seasons.

There could be some more of those 30-point outings on the way, however, with Gasol coming off a 2013-14 campaign that saw him attempt a career-high 12.1 field goals per game, despite playing his fewest minutes per contest (33.4) since 2010-11.