Mohegan — It was five years ago this past Wednesday that the Tulsa Shock snapped their WNBA-record 20 game losing streak.

Tulsa finished that season 3-31. Its woeful winning percentage (.088) remains a league record.

Connecticut Sun forward Kayla Pedersen was a rookie for the Shock that season and started 20 games. Five years later, she still hasn’t played for a winning WNBA team.

There’s next to no chance that Pedersen will get that elusive winning year this summer. Connecticut has to win its final six games to finish above .500, and almost all of them are against the best in the Eastern Conference. That includes Saturday night's home game against the league-leading New York Liberty (Mohegan Sun Arena, 7 p.m.)

The losing is maddening for the Sun, but they still have a job to do.

“Losing seasons every year, I get sick of it, I get tired of it,” Pedersen said. “But each team has fought in its own way. That’s what I take out of it. You just have to become a better basketball player each year no matter what the record. You have to rely on each other to become a better teammate, no matter what is going on.

“Yeah (losing) sucks. It does, (but) I don’t look it as, ‘This is all a failure.’ I get (positive) stuff out of it, too. … We just have to pull for each other and help each other as people and as teammates.”

Connecticut (12-16) is fifth in the East. It’s mathematically 5 1/2 games behind the fourth-place Washington Mystics (16-11) as the latter won the season series to earn the head-to-head tiebreaker. The top four teams in each conference make the playoffs.

The Sun are tied for fifth place with the Atlanta Dream, which overcame a nine-point, fourth-quarter deficit to stun the second-place Indiana Fever on the road Friday night (90-84).

Injuries have played a role in Connecticut’s six-game losing streak. Starting forward Alyssa Thomas (shoulder) has missed the previous six games. All-star guard Alex Bentley (ankle) has been out the last three games. Rookie reserve center Elizabeth Williams (knee) couldn’t play the last seven games.

The team has labeled Bentley’s status as day-to-day. Thomas and Williams will be reevaluated next week.

Connecticut lost five players to injuries before the regular season began, including all-stars Chiney Ogwumike and Katie Douglas. The consensus opinion of league observers was that the Sun would finish last in the East again.

The effort is still there for Connecticut, but the talent and depth isn’t. It led the defending champion Phoenix Mercury the majority of Thursday's game, but lost 81-80 as Leilani Mitchell made a contested and off-balance 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Veteran forward Camille Little has experienced the best and the worst in the WNBA. She started for the 2010 world champion Seattle Storm. She played 13 games for Atlanta in its inaugural 2008 season when it finished 4-30.

Little refuses to dwell on all that’s gone wrong this season.

“That’s the same thing as giving up,” Little said. “I’m not a person who gives up. That’s just not in my DNA to get mad and quit because we worked so hard and it didn’t work. It happens in life, but you don’t stop what you’re supposed to be doing, not me anyways.”

Pedersen was reminded after Thursday's loss about the five-year anniversary of Tulsa’s win.

“Really?” Pedersen said.

Pedersen laughed and added: “See, it does get better.”

n.griffen@theday.com

Twitter: @MetalNED