Mohegan - The time has come for the Connecticut Sun to shake things up a bit.

Connecticut has gone into a funk ever since it won six straight games last month. The Sun have lost eight of their last 10 games and are teetering on the edge of fourth place in the Eastern Conference. They have just 10 regular-season games left to make a playoff push.

Connecticut needed to make some changes and did so, signing 10-year veteran forward Ebony Hoffman last week. She'll play her first game with the Sun at 11:30 this morning against the Washington Mystics at the Verizon Center.

"Another veteran helps," Sun coach Anne Donovan said. "Somebody who's been around the block before. I think it helps our young kids having another settling kind of voice on the court and in the locker room."

"Coach called me and said she needed some help. So I'm here," Hoffman said.

Connecticut (10-14) is one-game behind second-place Indiana Fever, and one ahead of the Chicago Sky and New York Liberty, who share fifth place. The conference's top four teams make the playoffs. Washington (10-13) is a half-game ahead of the Sun in third.

Hoffman, a 6-foot-2 forward, is a career 41.2 percent shooter. She averaged just six points and 4.3 rebounds, however, and played sparingly the previous two seasons with the Los Angeles Sparks.

Hoffman was the 2007 Most Improved Player award winner and started for the Indiana Fever from 2008-10.

"(I have) a large personality and 10 years playing in this league," Hoffman said. "I know what it takes to get the job done, how to work, and how just how to be a leader. We're a young group. KT (Katie Douglas) and me are just (the only ones) over 30.

Connecticut waived center Kelley Cain to make room for Hoffman. Cain averaged just five minutes in nine games.

"Kelley Cain was a great practice player," Donovan said, "but when we've put her in fullcourt situations, she's struggled to keep up with the pace of the game. I just felt like why not take a gamble."

"(Ebony) can play the four. She can play the five. She's got a strong voice. She communicates, which our young kids are still trying to learn."

The Sun were the league's worst shooting team prior to Tuesday (41.8 percent).

"We've got to have more production at the stretch four (power forward)," Donovan said. "Kelsey (Griffin) has done a great job for us with energy and defense and deflections, all that. It would really help us if we had some offense from the four who can pull defenses away from Chiney (in the post)."

Hoffman said, "I'm a shooter, I can post up, and I also can facilitate as well."

Another change Donovan made was moving Griffin into the starting rotation in place of center Kelsey Bone in order to provide more energy.

Griffin, however, suffered an ankle sprain during Monday's practice and a Sun spokesman said Tuesday night Griffin is listed as "day-to-day."

Regardless, Bone is fine with her changing role.

"I'm not really concerned with starting or coming off the bench," Bone said. "I just want to give whatever the team needs. We hadn't been starting games and quarters the best. Coach Donovan wanted to make a change, and Griffin brought a different look with her and Chiney (Ogwumike) on the floor."

Washington is 2-0 against Connecticut this season and will play each other two more times after today's game.

n.griffen@theday.com