The Connecticut Sun have gotten good at keeping their season and WNBA championship dreams alive during the playoffs having won three elimination games.

Connecticut is in deep trouble this time, however.

The Sun return home to Mohegan Sun Arena on Thursday night one loss away from having another season end without hoisting the WNBA trophy. They were thoroughly outplayed by the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday night, 85-71, in Game 2 of the best-of-five series before 10,211 at Michelob ULTRA Arena.

Game 3 is at 9 p.m. (ESPN).

“You can't think big picture,” Sun head coach Curt Miller said. “That becomes overwhelming and daunting and feels, at times, bigger. It's too big. So you've got to drill it down and we'll get back to work with our preparation for Game 3, and all (we’ll) talk about is Game 3, and in particular, all we are going to talk about is the first quarter, and that's our approach.”

No team has rallied back to win a WNBA title down 2-0 since the league expanded the finals to best-of-five in 2006.

Connecticut’s Courtney Williams, when asked about her thoughts on the play of the Aces’ Chelsea Gray in Game 2, said, “I don't got no thoughts. We are going to rock out. We got a Game 3. We going to get to it.”

The third-seeded Sun were pretty upbeat following Sunday’s 67-64 Game 1 loss. They were able to get the game to be the defensive grind they love and believed they were done in by poor shooting (37.8%), which they considered fixable.

The Sun shot better in Game 2 (42.2%).

The Aces shot far better (51.6%) with the trio of Gray, Kelsey Plum and 2022 WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson combining to score just four less points (67) than Connecticut had as a team.

Wilson made 10 of 13 shots and scored a game-high 26 with 10 rebounds.

Gray continued her sensational playoff run with 21 points, 8 assists and 3 steals. Her 13-foot pull-up jumper put Las Vegas ahead to stay, 16-14, with 3 minutes, 5 seconds left in the first quarter.

Plum made a big difference for the Aces after struggling in Game 1, missing 8 of 9 shots for 6 points.

Plum had 20 points and 7 assists in Game 2.

“I told her she needed to get her (stuff) together,” Wilson quipped. “Make sure she understood that we need her to make shots, and I know that sounds harsh, but KP is a pro and she went out there and took care of business.”

Jonquel Jones had 16 points and 11 rebounds, Williams had 18 points and 5 assists and Brionna Jones had 12 points and 7 rebounds for the Sun. Alyssa Thomas added 13 points and 4 assists.

Outscoring teams inside the paint has been critical to Connecticut’s success this season.

Las Vegas did a number inside on the Sun on Tuesday night outscoring them, 46-28.

“I thought they made a concerted effort to get the ball in the paint,” Miller said. “Their schemes to get people didn't hurt us as much as just tremendous one-on-one play that got into the paint all night, and they shot 71% inside the arc for the game.

“They flipped points in the paint (from Sunday’s game) and just dominated that area.”

Las Vegas put the game out of reach with a 15-6 run in the final 4:01 of the third quarter. Wilson’s two free throws with 0.5 seconds left gave it a 68-54 lead.

A steal and three by Gray gave the Aces an 80-60 edge with 4:28 remaining in the game.

“We are taking it one game at a time,” Sun Jonquel Jones said. “That’s all we can do. We are going back home. … We are going to have our fans behind us who have been with us all season and we are going to use that to propel us to a win, and that’s all we can do.”

n.griffen@theday.com