Mohegan — It is the late, great Wellington Mara, owner of the football Giants and once the conscience of the National Football League, who properly framed the idea of a successful season:

"Are you playing meaningful home games late in the year?" he said many times.

In other words, have you given your fans a season? A reason to keep watching? A little joy? A little hope?

The Connecticut Sun will have done so by September and the end of the WNBA regular season. It's Step One toward regaining relevance, both within the league and the fan base. They will play meaningful home games for the rest of the summer. They've given us a summer.

Now they've just got to start learning how to win.

Because they lost a gutbuster at Mohegan Sun Arena Tuesday night. The great Tamika Catchings hit a shot late in overtime and Indiana ducked out the back door with a 75-73 win.

This was the biggest home game of the Anne Donovan era to date. There will be, most likely, bigger games in August and September. But for purposes of here and now, the circumstances were huge:

The Sun entered the game with a one-game lead in the loss column over the Fever. They'd already lost a home game to Indiana earlier this month, meaning a loss would imperil the season series. And it's an important season series, given that an argument could be made that Connecticut and Indiana may fight for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and the season series is the first tiebreaker.

Figure that Chicago and New York are playoff locks. Washington at 9-6 should qualify as well. Meanwhile, Atlanta, at the bottom of the conference, just traded Erika DeSouza for a song. Atlanta's best backcourt (Alex Bentley and Jasmine Thomas) currently play for the Sun. Hence, the Dream making a run at anything but Breanna Stewart seems unlikely.

So that leaves Connecticut and Indiana.

Which is why this loss stung.

Give the Sun points for having a chance to win a game in which they were putrid. Every time they crept to within a few points, Indiana would go on a run. Rinse. Repeat. Until the fourth period when the Sun rallied and came within Shekinna Stricklen's rimmed-out runner of winning a game they should have lost. And they should have lost because the final stat sheet read thusly: Second choice points went 21 for Indiana, four for Connecticut.

Point to all the late-game couldas, shouldas and wouldas you'd like. The Sun lost this game because they were non-competitive on the glass most of the night.

"At halftime, our three guards off the bench were the only ones with (offensive rebounds)," Donovan said. "If you don't do it in the first quarter, you sure aren't going to do it in the fourth quarter and overtime."

And that was the disconcerting part of the night: Indiana's players looked as though they knew something the Sun players didn't. Maybe it was knowing that offensive rebounds would be plentiful in times of distress.

Here's something else that separates Indiana from Connecticut: The Fever have a first-ballot Hall of Famer on their roster. The Sun do not. Indiana's two wins at Mohegan Sun Arena have been Tamika Catchings Productions. She went a crisp 9-for-10 in the 92-84 win earlier this month. She made the game winner Tuesday night. You wonder if, ultimately, Catchings' production and the confidence she inspires from her teammates make the difference.

She only has 6,735 career points now, even more than Diana Taurasi.

"Late in the game, you knew every play was going to her and that she'd be taking the shot," Donovan said, "and dammit, she made the shot."

Donovan has a few days now to kick her post players in the fanny and demand more. The Sun play Seattle here Friday and can return the favor at Indiana on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Fever fly out first thing today for a game tonight against New York, a very difficult back-to-back.

Long way to go. The halfway mark of the season comes Friday for the Sun. They've played themselves into playoff contention. Now they've got to play better. Question: Are they ready for this?

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.

Twitter: @BCgenius