Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner have the same routine for every home game.

After a shooting and media obligations, the two of them go out to dinner at a local restaurant called When Pigs Fly. Thomas orders an omelet and Bonner gets bacon and eggs.

Since being drafted in 2014, Thomas has spent her entire WNBA career with the Sun. Bonner has lived in Connecticut since 2020. Together they built a franchise and a life, reaching the WNBA Finals in 2022 and getting engaged in 2023.

“Connecticut feels like home,” Thomas said before the playoffs started.

But Thomas and Bonner are aware that when this season ends, the basketball aspect of their lives will likely change. The franchise they helped build is at a crossroads. Both will be free agents, and at age 37, retirement is approaching for Bonner.

“I want to win. I’m old,” Bonner said with a laugh on Sunday. “My timeline is very, very small.”

Brionna Jones and DiJonai Carrington will also be free agents, making it unlikely the core of the team will stay together.

The Sun played like a team with something to lose on Sunday. After years of being close, they still have title aspirations. That dream was on the line in Game 4, when Connecticut was eliminated by the Lynx.

The Sun stayed alive, beating the Lynx 92-82 and forcing a Game 5.

“I wanted to leave it all out there,” Bonner said. “This was do or die.”

The Sun trailed 50-43 at halftime, but Bonner said she had confidence in her team. They got the looks they wanted and played hard, she said. Everything else would come.

“I don’t think anyone in that locker room was ready to go their own way,” Bonner said. “We enjoy being together, and we’ve been together for a long time. We just nodded and said, ‘This is it. There are still 20 minutes left. Let’s just put it all out there and see what happens.” ”

What happened was a 49-32 victory by Connecticut in the second half.

Bonner scored seven of her 18 points in the third quarter to help spark the series, and the rest of the Sun followed suit.

Ty Harris finished with 20 points to lead Connecticut in scoring. She was 7 of 11 from the field and 4 of 5 from beyond the arc, providing some much-needed lift from three-point range.

Harris did not play in Game 1 of the series after injuring her ankle in the first round against Indiana. She played sparingly in the last two games and did not record a point.

After the injury, Marina Mabrey started in place of Harris, and coach Stephanie White said she was unsure if it was the right time to bring Harris back into the starting lineup. Sun’s coaching staff spent all Saturday discussing the decision, but did not make the official choice until around midnight.

“We knew we had to give her (Harris) more minutes,” White said. “It’s not easy to be in that position when you come back from injury and then have to come off the bench. It didn’t really give her the best chance for success.”

The switch worked and Harris got her offense going early, scoring on a pull-up jumper with 7:29 left in the first quarter. She scored seven points in the first half and then helped The Sun wrap things up in the second when she really heated up.

Harris hit two of her four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to close the game.

“My teammates give me confidence every day,” Harris said. “And my coaches follow me, so when my number is called, I’m ready to go out there and do what I have to do.”

Thomas also got going late in the game, scoring eight points in the fourth quarter and assisting on both of Harris’ three-pointers. She was just two rebounds shy of a triple-double, finishing with 18 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds.

“She steps up in big moments,” White said. “We put the ball in her hands a lot in the fourth quarter to orchestrate our offense, and she made plays for herself and others. That’s what she does.”

The win means Connecticut’s title hopes are still alive, but the Sun will have to close out the series on the road in Minnesota. A win there would lead to a final match with the Liberty, who eliminated the Aces earlier on Sunday.

The Sun knows it only gets harder from here, but once the season is over, things will change. And as Bonner said, they’re not quite ready to go their separate ways yet.