CJ Perez powered San Miguel Beer to back-to-back victories after an alarming start to its PBA Commissioner’s Cup campaign.
While much of the reason has been the presence of new import Justin Patton, Perez’s performance in the contrasting victories over the Macau Black Knights and Barangay Ginebra were also key for the Beermen.
The PBA Press Corps took notice of this and handed Perez the nod as Player of the Week for the period of March 31 to April 5, posting averages of 23.0 points on 55-percent shooting with 5.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.0 steals.
His biggest performance came on Easter Sunday when he bucked early foul trouble to score 15 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter of the 85-82 thriller at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“Nakakafrustrate siya pero nag-focus lang ako, nag-stay composed ako, nilaro ko lang laro ko sa second half at nagbunga naman. Grateful ako na nanalo kami,” Perez said.
Perez was the unanimous choice by the scribes regularly covering the PBA beat over Rain or Shine’s Andrei Caracut, NLEX’s Schonny Winston and Kevin Alas.
It was the third time this season Perez claimed the weekly honor, trailing only Converge rookie Juan Gomez de Liano, who has four.
Apart from his scoring, Perez also set up the pass that allowed Don Trollano to knock down the go-ahead three in the dying seconds.
Against Macau on Tuesday, Perez delivered a game-high 26 points to give San Miguel a 110-94 win at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
His play came at the time San Miguel made the decision to tap the 7-foot-1 Patton in lieu of Marcus Lee after dropping two of the first three games.
