Phoenix blows golden opportunity in loss to ROS

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There’s nothing Matthew Wright feels but regret following Phoenix’s 97-82 loss to Rain or Shine on Sunday.

“We had a chance to go to number two, but we blew it. You don’t get a lot of opportunities like that especially when there’s only three or four games left,” he said.

The Fuel Masters blew a chance to put themselves further up the top of the standings after falling behind in the second half and failing to recover against the tough Elasto Painters crew. Instead, they dropped to joint fifth place with Blackwater carrying a 4-4 card.

Wright was so disappointed with the outcome, which puts his team in danger of missing the playoffs with the uncertainty that looms in the middle of the pack.

“Everyone’s so close together in the middle. I really wish we could have that game back,” he said. “There’s nothing to be satisfied about. We blew our chance to get to second place.”

The rookie was the lone bright spot for Phoenix but even he had his fair share of struggles despite leading his crew with 26 points but doing so on a woeful 10-of-29 shooting from the field.

But Wright wasn’t shy in taking responsibility for his ton of missed shots.

“I believe I can make every shot. Today, I missed a lot of uncharacteristic shots, but you I can’t stop being aggressive because I missed some shots here and there. Maybe I forced a couple of shots, but I just try my best, especially rebounding the ball, and trying to get my teammates involved. It’s just one of those days. I felt like there was a lid on the rim today.”

“I’m just trying to score as much as possible to give us chances every night. If it comes out to be 20, 30, 40, or less than 10 (points), it doesn’t matter as long as I’m efficient, which I wasn’t today, so you can chalk that loss to me. I’ll take the blame for that.”

With the loss, Wright expects another uphill climb for the Fuel Masters going into their last three games of the elimination round against NLEX, Ginebra, and Alaska.

“We’re nowhere near where we need to be. We have a lot of potential still, but we got to start tying things together towards the latter end of the season,” he said. “Now, we’re in a dogfight in the next three games.”