Mohegan — The Connecticut Sun have been forced to tinker multiple times this season, most especially at guard because of miserable luck.

Longtime starting point guard Jasmine Thomas suffered a season-ending knee injury five games into the season.

Bria Hartley signed with the team in late July to provide depth. She tore her ACL seven days later.

Sun head coach Curt Miller said after Tuesday’s win over the Phoenix Mercury that there was “more tinkering to announce”, and Wednesday the team signed veteran guard Odyssey Sims to a seven-day contract. She’ll be available for Thursday’s game against Phoenix (7 p.m., Mohegan Sun Arena, ESPN2).

Sims, 5-foot-8, was drafted second overall by the Tulsa Shock in 2014 and played eight seasons in the league with the Shock, Dallas Wings, Los Angeles Sparks, Atlanta Dream and Minnesota Lynx. She re-signed with Minnesota in May 2022 and played just two games before the two parties agreed to a mutual separation.

Sims has shot 39.2% over 235 career games, averaged 12.3 points, and was an All-WNBA second team pick in 2019.

Connecticut cleared cap room for Sims by releasing guard Kiana Williams on Wednesday. The Sun signed her to a seven-day contract on July 27 to replace Hartley.

The Sun downed the Mercury 87-63 on Tuesday night, but wants a much smoother offensive start the second time around. The teams were tied at 13 after one quarter and Connecticut missed 19 of its first 24 shots over the first 12 minutes.

“(Tuesday) was one of those nights that I think that neither team played particularly well offensively, especially in the first half,” Miller said. “I think both coaching staffs probably were like, ‘what’s going on out there?’

“The game took a while to settle in and was not ascetically pleasing for a while. Just proud that we played hard. We didn’t always play our best basketball, but we played hard. … We’ve got to play better Thursday because we know that (Phoenix) will play better.”

The Sun’s shots began to fall early in the second quarter and they made 29 of their last 50 (58%). Seven of their 10 players scored in double figures, just the 12th time that’s happened in the league’s 26-year history.

Natisha Hiedeman led all Connecticut scorers with 16 points (with four assists) while Alyssa Thomas had a triple-double (10 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists), her second in 11 days. Thomas is just one of 11 players to record a triple-double and only one of five to do it multiple times.

The Sun (21-10) have already qualified for the postseason and are trying to secure a high seed. They’re in third place behind the Chicago Sky (23-8) and Las Vegas Aces (22-9), respectively, and lost the head-to-head tiebreaker against both.

The Washington Mystics (20-12) are fourth, followed by the Seattle Storm (19-12). Connecticut owns the tiebreaker over both and has five games left in the regular season.

Phoenix (13-18), which is in a three-way tie for eighth, may be without Diana Taurusi tonight while Diamond DeShields will make her return.

Taurusi played just 11 minutes on Tuesday night and didn’t play the second half due to a right quad issue. The Arizona Republic reported Wednesday that she was listed as questionable.

DeShields missed the previous five games due to a hip injury. She’s been the team’s third-leading scorer (12.5 ppg).

The top eight teams qualify for the postseason and only three playoff sports are still up for grabs.

• The Sun will accept donations at Thursday’s game for BG’s Heart and Sole Shoe Drive, an initiative started in 2016 by Phoenix’s Brittney Griner. Fans may donate new or gently worn shoes as well as necessities for unhoused people, such as toiletry products. Connecticut will also hold a 50-50 raffle. More information may be found at www.connecticutsun.com.

n.griffen@theday.com