UNCASVILLE — At the beginning of August, it seemed almost impossible for the Connecticut Sun to reach double-digit wins in 2025.
The rookie-laden squad under first-year coach Rachid Meziane entered the month with just four wins and on pace to finish with the worst record in the history of the franchise. Even after shocking the New York Liberty on Aug. 1, the Sun’s victories looked more like flukes than a pattern of success. The team followed up that game with five consecutive losses, and after escaping with a win over an injury-riddled Chicago Sky team, Connecticut let a 21-point lead slip away in the second half to lose an overtime heartbreaker to the Indiana Fever.
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But since that epic collapse against Indiana, the Sun have gone from the worst team in the league to a scrappy, consistent challenger against anyone with the poor sense to underestimate them. Connecticut earned its first consecutive wins of the season with three straight in the aftermath of the overtime defeat, and the streak was only broken by a hard-fought two-point loss to New York — the reigning WNBA champion.
“People are coming in here now like damn, Connecticut can guard us, and we have to guard them,” Sun star Marina Mabrey said Friday. “I think we just needed to learn where our bright spots are and (how to) go to those bright spots so that other people can shine too.”
The Sun (10-28) enter a matchup with the league-best Minnesota Lynx (30-8) at home on Saturday with wins in six of their last eight games, and though it’s mathematically impossible for the team to reach the playoffs, they’re thriving off of the freedom of having nothing to lose.
“I don’t think they want to lose to us going in to the playoffs, so I think for them there’s more pressure to be the best team in the league,” Mabrey said. “For us it’s about continuing to build, and I think it’s a confidence thing. If Minnesota goes and wins a championship, next year we come in and we’re saying like, we beat Minnesota. I think it’s just something for us and our process.”
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Connecticut already knows it’s capable of hanging with the best team in the league, because it did so early in the season when its pieces were far less put together than they are now. The Sun gave the Lynx a scare in Minneapolis on May 23, leading by as many as 15 points in the fourth quarter before getting outscored 23-2 over the final five minutes. Though the team still has trouble closing at times — it allowed the Dallas Wings to get back within two points down the stretch after leading by as many as 14 on Wednesday — Mabrey said the team learned a hard lesson against the Fever that has propelled it through those difficult moments late in games.
“With Indiana, we understood that in this league, we can play hard for 25 minutes but as soon as you let up against a team that can really put the ball in the basket, it’s gonna be hard for us to win,” Mabrey said. “I think (we’re) just finding an identity and sticking to it and also just learning. Like when we were in Dallas, we learned how to win when we were tired. Even though we didn’t play well, and I know Dallas is down bad, there’s still something we can take from that.”
The Lynx also haven’t seen the Sun since rookie Leila Lacan arrived in mid-July. The French guard dramatically altered the team’s makeup almost immediately, and she has only continued to improve 21 games into her WNBA career. Lacan set a new season high with 22 points in the loss to the Liberty while sporting a nasty black eye from the game before, and she doubled down in the win over the Wings with another 22 points plus six assists and four steals.
Her rise to dominance on both ends of the floor is helping to unlock the rest of Connecticut’s stars, including her fellow rookies: Aneesah Morrow logged back-to-back double-doubles against New York and Dallas, and Saniya Rivers is averaging 11 points over the last six games up from her season average of 8.4 on top of her usual defensive production.
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“They’re just tough,” Mabrey said of the rookie trio. “I’m not even talking about their talent and stuff. They’re all super talented and can be All-Stars in this league, but I’m just talking about the mentality. They’re not going to be pushed around, and they really think that they can guard the best players in the league … When you learn how to play in this league plus having that mindset, that’s going to be hard to stop in the coming years.”
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How to watch Connecticut Sun vs. Minnesota Lynx
Site: Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville
Time/date: 7 p.m., Saturday
Team records: Sun 10-28, Lynx 30-8
Last meeting: 102-63 Lynx, June 29 in Minneapolis
TV: NBA TV, NBC Sports Boston
Streaming: WNBA League Pass
