Mohegan — Courtney Williams was asked about the energy that DiJonai Carrington, one of her Connecticut Sun teammates, brought to the team after they thrashed the Chicago Sky in Game 4 of their WNBA semifinal series Tuesday night.

Williams took a bit of a detour while answering.

“Sometimes, when you get into the playoffs, you just get uptight,” Williams said. “You just get outside of yourself because it’s a different type of, I guess, urgency. But we play our best basketball when we’re having fun, when we’re jumping around, we’re cheering each other on. I think that’s when we play our best basketball and I think that’s what you seen tonight.

“She’s out there having fun. … That’s the DiJonai that we know. I just think she’s having fun.”

The Sun’s 2022 season has come down to one last game in their best-of-five series. They must beat defending champion Chicago for a second straight time, an opponent they’ve only beaten four times in 15 games over the past two seasons.

Connecticut also has to win Game 5 at Wintrust Arena (8 p.m., ESPN2) instead of Mohegan Sun Arena, where it’s done its best work.

Of all the things the Sun must do Thursday night to get a win, being loose and enjoying themselves may be as important as any detail on a scouting report.

“We wanted to come out here and play together, play for each other and just give each other confidence,” Connecticut’s Brionna Jones said after Tuesday’s 104-80 rout. “Just go out there and have fun.

“We had fun tonight and I think it showed, so I think if we keep doing that were good.”

The Sun played perhaps their best game of the season on Tuesday night and gave Chicago its worst beating of the year in the process. They scored 12 of the game’s first 14 points, built a 16-point lead in the first six minutes and led by as many as 27 with over 6 minutes remaining in the game.

It was the biggest blowout in WNBA playoff history to force a Game 5.

“(That was) a big response by our team,” Connecticut head coach Curt Miller said after Tuesday’s win, “and that starting group really set the tone early with the aggressiveness on both ends of the floor.”

Starter Alyssa Thomas scored 11 of her 17 points in the first quarter to get the Sun off to a fast start.

Connecticut dominated inside the paint as it outscored the Sky 66-34. It also had a huge edge in rebounds (39-23) and second-chance points (15-1).

“We’ve talked the entire time how this is going to be a points-in-the-paint series for us,” Miller continued. “That was an impressive performance of points in the paint.”

Six Sun players scored in double figures and all 10 had at least two points.

Williams had perhaps the most encouraging game for Connecticut after shooting an atypical 31.3% through the first three games and averaging eight points. She made 9 of 14 shots and scored 19 in Game 4.

“I thought Courtney really set the tone with off-ball movement,” Miller said. “We (talked during pregame about) action on the backside and how much (Chicago is) trying to congest the paint. And that movement really helped us tonight. But, again, you know we have to have paint touches.”

Williams said: “Instead of taking those 3s and those long jumpers, go (inside) to get layups.”

The Sun have become acclimated to big games as this is the sixth straight season they’ve made the postseason and the third time they’ve reached the semifinals over that period. They also played in the 2019 WNBA Finals.

“We know we have to come in and be ready from the jump (in Game 5) because (Chicago is) going to come out (aggressive),” Jones said, “but we know how we felt tonight and we know what we have to bring to finish out a five-game series.

“We know what it takes and we all just have to bring that energy that we had (Tuesday) and bring that to the next one.”

n.griffen@theday.com