Wright confident in Fiba 2nd qualifying window

MANILA - After an impressive performance in the first window of the Fiba Basketball World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifiers, Matthew Wright approaches next month's games with a lot of confidence.

Wright scored in double digits in both of Gilas Pilipinas's wins back in November, tallying a dozen points in the 77-71 win in Japan and following that up with 11 in the 90-83 defeat of Chinese Taipei in Manila. He shot 50 percent from beyond the arc, making on average 2 three-pointers per contest.

Needless to say, he was a critical reason for the Filipinos' ability to make life extra difficult for their opponents.

"We went 2-0 so I feel like we did our job," Wright said. "We handled business, even if it was sloppy at times and even if it was closer that we expected to be, especially against Chinese Taipei. Now we have some time to focus on getting better and ironing out the kinks."

Things will certainly get more difficult in February, especially with the prospect of missing spitfire Terrence Romeo and the naturalized pair of Andray Blatche and Christian Standhardinger looming large.

Wright, however, doesn't want to key in on who's missing. He'd rather zero in on their game plan against their next two foes.

"We cannot really focus on who won't be there right now," he explained. "Whether they play or not is not really in our control, so we'll work with the pieces we have."