Connecticut Sun head coach Curt Miller was asked during Monday’s team video press conference how Alyssa Thomas was feeling because she’s played two games since dislocating her right shoulder on Sept. 21.

“I think she’s doing great, and she’s pissed off,” Miller said with a grin, “so we’re ready.”

The seventh-seeded Sun need more of that fire heading into their third elimination game of the WNBA playoffs, something they felt top-seeded Las Vegas had more of in the Aces' Game 4 win of their semifinal playoff series on Sunday.

The teams meet one last time this season in the fifth and final game of the series on Tuesday at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. (7:30 p.m., ESPN2).

Win or leave the bubble.

“We just didn’t have the same kind of fight (in Game 4) than we had in Game 3,” said Miller. “I think it’s been fair to say that the team that has won more of the hustle plays, won more of the 50-50 balls, showed more energy and tenacity has won each of the four games.”

The team that has scored more interior points has won each of the four games, too. The Aces (20-6) won that battle in Sunday’s 84-75 win as they had a 52-20 edge in points in the pain.

Las Vegas forward Angel McCoughtry scored 16 of her game-high 29 points inside. Fellow forward A’ja Wilson, the 2020 WNBA MVP, scored 14 of her 18 inside, too.

Connecticut (14-14) made 10 of 24 field goals inside the paint.

The Sun shot 26 of 48 inside in their 77-68 win on Sept. 24.

Las Vegas was also able to outscore Connecticut inside without one of its best post players, Dearica Hamby, who earned her second straight Sixth Woman of the Year award last week. She tore a ligament in her right knee during Game 3. She was the team’s third-leading scorer (13 ppg) during the regular season and second in rebounding (7.1 rpg).

“I felt like all the pressure in (Game 4) was on them, but I felt like we were the tighter team,” Miller said.

Asked if there was something he could do to loosen up his players, Miller said, “I reminded them (Monday) that no team has more playoff experience collectively than we do. We have a veteran locker room that knows how hard it is to close out series. They know how hard it is. There’s multiple players in that locker room that have won a championship at this level and knows how difficult that is. We can’t hope to win. We’ve got to try to take it.”

Connecticut has also already won two single-elimination games in the playoffs, too, beating the sixth-seeded Chicago Sky (94-81, Sept. 15) in the first round and the third-seeded Los Angeles Sparks in the second round (73-59, Sept. 17).

“We know what we’ve gone through to get to this point,” Sun center Brionna Jones said. “We just have to come out (Tuesday) with that energy and fight we’ve had the entire season.”

The winner moves on to face No. 2 Seattle in the best-of-five WNBA Finals series starting on Friday. The Storm swept the Minnesota Lynx 3-0 in their semifinal series.

n.griffen@theday.com