Mohegan — Connecticut Sun head coach Curt Miller is certain that Elena Delle Donne will play for the Washington Mystics in Sunday’s WNBA Final despite her back injury.

Washington head coach Mike Thibault isn’t counting on Delle Donne playing. Or fellow starter Ariel Atkins, who is also dealing with back spasms.

Sun leader Jasmine Thomas hopes that the Mystics have everyone available because she wants to play them at their best.

Whoever suits up for Washington won’t be known until Sunday when it and Connecticut play Game 3 of the WNBA Finals (3:30 p.m., Mohegan Sun Arena, Ch. 8). The best-of-five series is tied at one with the next two games at Mohegan.

Atkins and Delle Donne were both listed as “questionable” by the Mystics.

Delle Donne, who won her second WNBA MVP this season, left just 6 minutes, 32 seconds into Game 2 on Tuesday. The Sun won, 99-87.

An MRI showed Wednesday that Delle Donne had a small disk herniation in her back.

"We'll see how 100-percent (Delle Donne) is, but she's going to play," Miller said. "I mean, this is a big moment for their franchise. This is a bit moment for her. She's going to play, and we're prepared for that."

Atkins was stricken with back spasms on Thursday night. She was terrific in Game 1 as she scored 21 with five rebounds and three steals.

“I’m not counting on them playing," Thibault said. "I know Curt thinks I’m making this stuff up. I wish I was.”

Atkins and Delle Donne weren’t with Washington during its media session before it practiced Saturday.

“We’re preparing as if neither one of them will play,” Thibault said. “Elena has made some progress. … They are with our physical therapist and doctors right now.”

Thomas said, “I prefer (Washington) to be healthy. ... When you’re a competitor, you want to play against a full team. You want them to be healthy. You don’t want any excuses or anything to come back later. For us, we hope (Delle Donne) is healthy; athlete-to-athlete, for her to feel good and for her to be on the floor.”

Connecticut, which practiced before the Mystics, were unaware of Atkins’ injury.

“You want to play a full, healthy team, but we’re familiar with their roster,” Thomas said. “The way we prepare here is we prepare for every single person on the team. We would like to see Delle Donne on the floor, but if she’s not, it’s next player up (for Washington). What Emma (Meesseman) has done this season (for the Mystics) has been amazing. They’re extremely, talented players, so we have to be ready no matter what.”

Meesseman had started for four of her past five years with Washington. She missed a good part of the start of this season playing for her native Belgium at the FIBA EuroBasket tournament. She came off the bench in 17 of her 23 games for the Mystics this season.

Tianna Hawkins (16 points, six rebounds), Aerial Powers (11 points) and Meesseman (23 points, eight rebounds) were great off the Washington bench in Game 2. They combined to shoot 19 of 30.

“We have great respect for not only Emma but Tianna Hawkins and what they bring to the table,” Miller said. “They’re very deep and very talented, so there’s not much drop off.”

“(Delle Donne’s status) doesn’t change anything for how we’re going to come out and play,” Sun co-captain Alyssa Thomas said. “Since nobody respects what we’ve done, we have (been given) no respect for what we did with L.A. (a three-game semifinal sweep over the Los Angeles Sparks), apparently they were a mess (internally), so that’s why we beat them.

“If Delle Donne doesn’t play, I’m sure people will have something to say about that. At this point, we don’t care. We’re just trying to win a championship at all costs.”

n.griffen@theday.com