Mohegan — Injuries have cursed the Connecticut Sun this season. They lost five players before the regular season and had two more get hurt last week.

The Sun’s schedule ... now that has been a blessing.

Connecticut is one of five teams challenging for four Eastern Conference playoff berths. It's in fifth place and has the worst conference record.

But the Sun's next four games are against losing teams, starting Sunday at the last-place Atlanta Dream (Philips Arena, 3 p.m., NBA TV).

Starting forward Alyssa Thomas (shoulder sprain) and reserve center Elizabeth Williams (knee contusion) are the latest Sun players to get injured. Williams will miss at least two more games; Thomas is out a minimum of two weeks.

Connecticut is 12-11, 4-10 in the East. It has to catch up fast as eight of its 11 remaining games are in conference.

The third-place Indiana Fever and Washington Mystics both own the head-to-head tiebreaker over Connecticut.

“We’ve got to start putting wins together, and we’ve got to start putting wins together fast before this thing gets out of hand,” Kelsey Bone said after Friday’s 90-78 loss to the first-place New York Liberty.

“We’ve got to figure it out.”

Scheduling could make a big difference in which teams qualify for the playoffs, and Connecticut has it better than most. It has five games left against losing teams. It plays at the Tulsa Shock (10-14) on Friday, returns home to play Atlanta (Aug. 23), and plays at Atlanta again (Aug. 25).

Timing has been in the Sun's favor since early in the season. They played defending East champion Chicago when the latter was without Allie Quigley, last year’s Sixth Man winner. They won on two late free throws, 67-65 (June 11).

Connecticut played at the defending champion Phoenix Mercury on June 19 when All-Star and 2014 Defensive Player of the Year Brittney Griner was serving a suspension. The Sun prevailed in double overtime (90-78).

Olympian Candace Parker was on a sabbatical from the Los Angeles Sparks both times it played Connecticut. They were also without All-Star Nneka Ogwumike (injury), fellow starters Alana Beard (injury) and Kristi Toliver (overseas commitment), and reserve Erin Phillips (injury) when the Sun beat them on June 21 (76-68).

Beard, Phillips and Toliver were unavailable again when Connecticut beat the Sparks in overtime, 80-76, on June 26.

All-Stars and Olympians Seimone Augustus and Lindsay Whalen were sidelined by injuries when the Sun beat the league-leading Minnesota Lynx in overtime 78-77 (July 22).

Connecticut is catching Atlanta and Tulsa at the right time, too. The Dream were a hellish matchup in previous years, winning two Eastern Conference titles and finishing first last year.

Atlanta has unraveled this season. Center Erika de Souza had a dip in her offensive production and was traded to Chicago after the All-Star break. Power forward Sancho Lyttle has been hobbled by a partial tear of the plantar fascia on her left foot.

The Shock started 8-1 when All-Star Skylar Diggins tore the ACL in her right knee. Tulsa lost 13 of its next 15 games prior to Saturday night’s game at New York.

Washington, on the other hand, has a brutal end to its regular season schedule, playing the Lynx, Chicago and Phoenix twice. It also plays Indiana, Los Angeles and New York.

The Fever have a favorable schedule, but plays Los Angeles twice and has a game each against Phoenix and Minnesota.

None of that will matter if the Sun can't get it together against the East, though.

“A lot of people like to talk about our age, but we have to figure out a way to play basketball and let it work in our favor,” Bone said. “We keep digging ourselves these holes.”

n.griffen@theday.com

Twitter: @MetalNED