Sun's season on the brink as they host Sky in Game 4
Sep. 6—MOHEGAN — The Connecticut Sun realize their chance to win an elusive WNBA title with its current roster is getting close to an end.
Players are getting older. Contracts are expiring. There's only so much money to spread around given the realities of the league's salary cap.
Sun forward DeWanna Bonner was asked if she felt the championship window was closing following Sunday's 76-72 loss to the Chicago Sky to fall behind 2-1 in the best-of-five semifinal series.
"Once you start stressing, then they've already got you beat," the veteran responded.
Connecticut is on the brink of having another season end without a championship and must win Game 4 at Mohegan Sun Arena on Tuesday (8 p.m., ESPN2) to send the series back to Chicago for Game 5 and keep its title dreams alive.
"Our defensive energy and effort was unwavering even when they made some plays," Sun head coach Curt Miller said after Game 3. "I'm excited again that we got the game in our style of play that we think can be very successful.
"I'm confident if we can get (these) games like that we can have success."
Third-seeded Connecticut believes that its best chance to beat the second-seeded and defending champion Sky is by making the games "messy" via defense, rebounding and physicality.
The Sun were able to win ugly in Game 1, 68-63, on Aug. 28.
Game 3 was almost as ugly but Chicago beat the Sun at their own game this time.
The Sky averaged a league-high 48.1% shooting during the regular season. They were held to 37.1% on Sunday, the second time that they've shot under 40% in the series.
The Sun shot worse than Chicago (36.8%). ESPN Stats & Info reported that they were a miserable 16 of 41 (39%) from 5-feet or closer to the basket.
Alyssa Thomas and Brionna and Jonquel Jones scored the majority of their points inside for Connecticut, but combined to shoot only 10 of 33 for 24 points.
"As we were playing inside-out (the Sky) were sending a lot of (defenders) in the paint," Miller said. "They had four and five people in the paint all night just really challenging us on the perimeter.
"They're trying to limit shots by Jonquel and shots by Bri Jones and really coming with (double teams). It's hard at times to score through that. I think (the Joneses) they're making good plays out of doubles. ... The challenge is trying to get them to some touches before (the Sky) are loaded up (defensively)."
Miller went as far as subbing Courtney Williams in for Jonquel Jones, the 2021 WNBA MVP, with the Sun trailing 66-64 with 3 minutes, 37 seconds left in the game in order to jumpstart the offense.
Connecticut had just missed five straight shots and turned it over on a sixth possession when Miller made the change in order to go small and try to spread the floor.
"(The Sky) are incredibly long," Miller said. "Emma (Meesseman is) deceivingly long. Candace (Parker) and (Azura) Stevens are obviously very long. So there's moments when you think we're getting point-blank shots but their length can bother us.
"It's a credit to their length around the rim. They're not easy to score against."
