Haven't the Sun had enough by now?

Mohegan - There was a time during a losing streak once when Tom Coughlin, the coach of the New York Giants, told the media that the streak would end "when the players have had enough."

That was a clever way of saying that it's the players — and the players only — who will decide it's time to do all the little things necessary to start playing better.

So when do you suppose the Connecticut Sun players will have had enough?

I'd like to think that what happened Friday night at Mohegan Sun Arena would be at least Step One. But then, who knows? The Sun of 2010 are really capable of defying explanation.

You will note that no players will be quoted in today's discourse. That's because I'm tired of listening to them. Really tired. This is a group that has been big on talk and inconsistent on results. And so anything they said following the pathetic 94-62 loss to Atlanta on Friday night in Neon Uncasville would fall under the category of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

We'll know when they've had enough.

Because they'll start playing the way they are capable.

Until then, they are an untrustworthy, underachieving group whose sum of its parts are far greater than the whole.

I mean, I can do a lot worse than stock a roster with Ashja Jones, Kara Lawson, Sandrine Gruda and Tina Charles.

An increasing number of e-mails and reader comments have been calling for coach Mike Thibault's head. I'm not sure what they want the guy to do. Forget the idea that countless players and fellow coaches around the game regard him among the best — if not the best — coach in the WNBA. How many different ways can you say, "box out?" How many different ways can you say, "throw the ball to somebody wearing the same uniform?"

Except that little things, generally speaking, require concentration and getting your hands dirty.

Who's up for getting their hands dirty Sunday in New York?

Long before the Dream scored 25 straight points on Friday, they were up seven late in the first period. Gruda missed a free throw with about 20 seconds remaining. Kerri Gardin got the offensive rebound. The Sun held the ball, or tried to, for one shot. The worst they should have been trailing was seven going to the second quarter. They could have cut it to four or five.

Instead, Renee Montgomery turned the ball over. It led to an Atlanta layup. Two points the Sun didn't get. Two points Atlanta did.

That's how you lose games.

Long before the lead was 82-41, Atlanta was gathering offensive rebounds as if there were $100 bills attached to each of them. Jones couldn't box out the immortal Alison Bales. Erika de Souza played ping-pong with Sancho Lyttle.

And if you subscribe to the theory that rebounding is about positioning and effort, what grade do you suppose the Sun front line deserved on Friday?

Winning teams don't give up possession of the ball that easily at the end of quarters and halves.

Winning teams don't allow second-chance points routinely.

Winning teams are mentally tougher than that.

Thibault was asked after Friday's game if he thought the players were at the state of "we've had enough."

"It depends on how the most talented players react," he said. "Will they accept the responsibility of carrying the load?"

There's nothing dumber in sports than media types who make pronouncements that begin with "if the season ended today." The season doesn't end today. The Sun players have three weeks left to figure out that what they're doing isn't working.

Every single one of them.

There are plenty of examples of redemption in the WNBA. Washington lost at home to San Antonio on Thursday and won a much tougher game at Indiana on Friday. Last season, the Sun lost in Chicago on a Saturday night (the Sky scored 24 straight points in that game) and responded with a win the next night in Detroit. I recall 2007 when the Sun destroyed Indiana on a Saturday night in August and then lost to the Fever in the playoffs three weeks later.

So it can certainly happen.

But the way it's going now isn't working.

This is on Jones, Lawson, Charles, Gruda and a few others to stop it.

But have they had enough?

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.