Mohegan — The games this month have come at the Connecticut Sun in waves. Steadily and without apology. Such is life in the succinct WNBA season, when sometimes, opponents feel like nothing more than Pink Floyd lyrics: all in all, just another brick in the wall.

Then there’s Friday night, an official biggie at Mohegan Sun Arena, where dashes of old and new get sprinkled into the stew, creating some intrigue.

The old: The team will honor former Sun great Lindsay Whalen, all under the watchful eye of villainous Las Vegas coach Bill Laimbeer, the former coach at Detroit, when the Sun and Shock had one of the WNBA’s best rivalries.

The new: Connecticut’s lofty perch in second place in the WNBA standings, giving the Sun a legitimate chance at a double bye in the upcoming playoffs. A victory over third-place Vegas would give the Sun (19-8) the tiebreaker over the Aces, who at 19-9 sit a half-game back.

And who knows? If the Sun win tonight and Washington (20-7) loses in Chicago, Connecticut would move back into first place overall, based on owning the tiebreaker over the Mystics.

The game begins at 7:30 p.m., televised on NESN Plus and NBA TV.

“As a coach, you preach all year long that no game is bigger than another,” Sun coach Curt Miller said Thursday after practice. “But we all know what’s at stake here. This is the rubber match between two teams close in the standings. Ultimately, the tiebreaker in this series and L.A. series (the Sun play in Los Angeles Sunday) will play a big part in the final standings. There will be a little extra juice in the building.”

Ah, but there won’t be any extra players for the Sun. Connecticut will be down guards Rachel Banham and Natisha Hiedeman, whose ankle injuries aren’t considered all that serious, but enough to keep them out at least for this game. That means starting point guard Jasmine Thomas must avoid foul trouble.

At least the Sun, given the recent hectic schedule, are reasonably well-rested. Miller gave the team two days off this week.

“The hard part is that we’ve got to play through some injuries,” Miller said. “A lot of teams are getting healthier at this time of year. We’ve got a patch where we’re down multiple players. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We need to get ready with what we have.”

Vegas recently welcomed back all-star A’ja Wilson, who missed the Sun’s last game in Vegas Aug. 11. Las Vegas has one of the league’s most talented rosters with Wilson, center Liz Cambage, Kayla McBride and Kelsey Plum, among others.

The Sun have six games left after this one.

“We’ve been able to learn how to focus on the next game. It’s something about maturity of this team,” Thomas said. When we went through that (five-game) losing streak (June 23-July 10), we figured out that you stop the bleeding with the next game. Don’t worry about how it affects the totality of the season, just get ready for that next game. It’s one game at a time. Each opponent is different. Each game has its different challenges.”

m.dimauro@theday.com