Mohegan —  Alex Bentley held her follow-through behind the three-point line before putting her head down and running back to her end of the court. She had just connected for her second 3-pointer with four minutes, 44 seconds remaining in the first quarter and forced the Los Angeles Sparks bench to call for a timeout.

It was one of the prettier moments in a game that saw the Sun shoot only 19-64 from the field Thursday night, a performance that resulted in the Connecticut's first loss of 2015 preseason, 64-57, at Mohegan Sun Arena.

But head coach Anne Donovan said she likes her team's position heading into the regular season.

"I feel good about where we are," Donovan said. "We have a long way to go. Offensively in particular we struggled tonight, but we haven't been here to practice a lot so we don't have a lot of offense in at this point."

After winning their first two preseason games, the Sun offense stalled against the Sparks. Now, Connecticut is locking its eyes on June 5, when the Sun will play host to the Washington Mystics in its regular season opener and try to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2012.

The Sun will be working with some new parts this season. Connecticut traded away the No. 3 overall pick in April's WNBA Draft and veteran guard Renee Montgomery for forwards Camille Little and Shekinna Stricklen. And with Kelsey Griffin sitting out due to an injured hip,  Connecticut looked like a machine in repair.

Donovan said that she employed a new offensive scheme this season, and that she is looking forward to more practice time to iron out some of the deficiencies in her team's attack.

"We had bunnies that we had to make. No offense is gonna get better looks than we got in there," she said.

Moreover, the Sun will enter the season without last season's leading scorer and rebounder Chiney Ogwumike, who is out indefinitely after undergoing microfracture knee surgery in January.

Despite entering the half with a 28-26 lead, Connecticut seemed every bit like a team struggling for an identity in the second half, which offered a different story on scoreboard, but much of the same on the stat sheet.

Los Angeles took a 33-32 lead on two free throws by Erin Phillips with 7:53 remaining in the third quarter, and missed shots and turnovers stunted any chance for a Connecticut comeback as the Sparks opened up a 12-point lead on a Phillips elbow jumper in the first minute of the fourth quarter.

"It was one of those nights where we just didn't shoot the ball well," Donovan said.

The Sun trailed by eight with five minutes remaining in the fourth, but as was the theme of the night, Alyssa Thomas missed a three that would have cut the lead to five.

Connecticut forced a stop on the next possession, but Thomas missed another three that only graciously grazed the front of the rim.

Donovan, however, remains optimistic.

"I'm pretty sure that end of the floor is gonna get a whole lot better quicker as they can get more things in," she said.