Seattle — The Connecticut Sun have proven the past few weeks that they have a hard time winning without starter Alyssa Thomas.

The Sun announced an hour before Sunday’s game at the Seattle Storm they’d be without starter Courtney Williams, in addition to Thomas, due to a personal issue.

One can figure out how things went for Connecticut.

The Sun's margin of error was too thin for them to overcome both poor shooting and surrendering another big second-half run. They lost for the sixth time in eight games, 84-70, before 9,307 at Key Arena.

Connecticut is 9-7 and in less than three weeks has plunged from first place in the WNBA’s overall standings to sixth.

The Sun managed to cut their 12-point halftime deficit to 51-47 with 5 minutes, 21 seconds left in the third quarter.

Seattle closed the quarter when a 17-1 run. A late layup by rookie Jordan Canada pushed the Storm ahead 68-48.

Coming up with enough stops to prevent large runs has been an issue for Connecticut of late.

“We just couldn’t get (the run) stopped,” Sun coach Curt Miller said. “It was real quick. … A few missed open looks, a few missed foul shots that could’ve stopped that run, and before you know it, it’s a (17-1) run.

“It was the one big difference in the game.”

Thomas has missed seven straight games and six of Connecticut’s losses have come since she injured her shoulder during a 95-91 loss to the Washington Mystics on June 12.

Williams wasn’t with the Sun.

Poor shooting was another big difference on Sunday. Seattle shot 46.6 percent, Connecticut 37.5.

Six players scored in double figures for the second-place Storm (12-5). Natasha Howard had 13 points, eight rebounds and four blocks, Breanna Stewart had 11 points, five rebounds and three blocks and Sue Bird had 11 points and nine assists.

“A lot of our bench players contributed a lot tonight,” Seattle head coach Dan Hughes said. “No one played 30 minutes today and that makes for a very good day. … We had 42 points in the paint. On top of that, our defense was not soft.”

Reserves Alex Bentley (15 points, four assists, two steals) and Betnijah Laney (11 points, six rebounds) were Connecticut’s leading scorers.

Jonquel Jones had 10 points and four rebounds for the Sun. She shot 4 of 8, the only starter to shoot over 38 percent.

Fellow starters Rachel Banham, Chiney Ogwumike, Shekinna Stricklen and Jasmine Thomas combined to miss 22 of 32 shots (31.3 percent).

“I shared with them after the game that we executed open shots tonight better than some nights,” Miller said. “but we missed a lot of open shots. Our execution wasn’t bad and we’re going to look at that.

“I’m disappointed. We both took 30 shots in the paint, but they shot 70 percent in the paint and we shot 43 percent. You have to credit the length of Howard and Stewart. They make it difficult around the rim and we just didn’t have a great finishing night around the rim.”

The grind will continue for the Sun as they’ll play three more road games this week against the first-place Phoenix Mercury (13-5) on Tuesday, the second-place Los Angeles Sparks (12-5) on Thursday and the Las Vegas Aces (5-11) on Saturday.