San Miguel Beer remains unbeaten three games into the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup.
But the defending champions are bracing for their biggest test when they take on Barangay Ginebra San Miguel on Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Beermen coach Jorge Gallent sees the encounter as a gauge of where their competitive level is at right now early into their bid for another grand slam.
“Definitely (it will serve as our gauge), Ginebra is one of the strongest teams here. We just have to prepare against them,” Gallent said.
“We have to be consistent, and we have to give our 48 minutes of energy for us to have a chance of beating them.”
San Miguel is on a roll after winning its first three starts.
The Beermen beat Phoenix in a convincing fashion, 116-102, on Easter Sunday following a long break to build good momentum ahead of their marquee match against the Kings.
Ginebra is in a two-way logjam at third tied with NorthPort with identical 3-1 win-loss cards.
Aside from the consistent numbers from a healthy June Mar Fajardo, Jericho Cruz and Marcio Lassiter, Gallent is also looking at CJ Perez bringing in energy for San Miguel to pull off another win.
Perez is coming off a personal season-best 32 points and has shown better outside sniping following the All-Star break hitting 4-of-8 three-pointers.
“CJ is a guy that knows his skills work in practice. He comes early, he shoots early and after practice he stays there and he shoots,” Gallent said.
“What I’m saying is he’s developing his three-point shot which we’re very happy about. Definitely, he’s a slasher but the only thing he needs is confidence in his three-point shot which is here already. He should be a hard guy to stop.”
Perez’s production of late came after averaging a meager 7.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists in his first two games.
“In the first two games, I have to admit that I’m a bit hesitant. I get my rhythm by attacking but as coach said I just have to be confident hitting threes,” Perez said.
The Commissioner’s Cup Finals Most Valuable Player got a chance to practice his outside shooting during the All-Star Game playing for Team Mark where he scored 39 points highlighted by seven long bombs.
