Los Angeles — The Connecticut Sun were locked into the No. 4 playoff spot even before Sunday's WNBA regular-season finale even began.

The New York Liberty made sure of that, securing the No. 3 seed earlier in the day with an 82-81 victory over the Dallas Wings, New York's team record 10th straight victory.

So with nothing of real essence to gain, other than playing spoiler against a Los Angeles Sparks team battling for the No. 1 overall seed, the Sun never led in losing to the Sparks 81-70 at the Staples Center.

But Connecticut did get to enjoy an impressive individual accomplishment by one of its stars.

Jonquel Jones, the Sun's 6-foot-6 center in only her second season, broke the WNBA's single-season rebounding record while collecting her 20th double-double of the season.

Jones, who entered the day five shy of tying Tina Charles' record 398 rebounds set in 2010 as a rookie with Connecticut, finished with 10, ending the season with 403. She also scored 10 points for the Sun, who finished the regular season 21-13 and lost back-to-back games for only the second time this season.

Jones broke the record with her sixth rebound of the game with 8 minutes, 50 seconds left in the third quarter, pulling down a rebound off a missed shot by Los Angeles forward Nneka Ogwumike.

"I just wanted to come into this game and get into my groove as early as possible when it came to rebounding," Jones said. "Just being able to say that I'm able to do something like this is really special. Tina Charles did something special and to be in the same category as her it makes me feel really, really good and I'm happy to do it with my teammates."

Added Sun coach Curt Miller: "Pretty incredible for a second-year player to break an all-time record like that. She's one of the elite rebounders I've ever been around. She just had an unbelievable year at the defensive end, and she's just scratching the surface.

"Obviously she is going to just keep getting better and better at all aspects of her game, so for her to break a WNBA record in just her second year is truly remarkable and I am really happy for JJ."

Courtney Williams led the Sun with 19 points, while Alyssa Thomas and Morgan Tuck each added nine. It was Tuck's best scoring output of the season since returning from a knee contusion on July 12. The Sun lost back-to-back games for the first time since the end of June.

The Sparks (26-8) were led by Ogwumike with 21 points and Candace Parker, who scored 12 points and pulled down 14 rebounds.

The Sun will have a week off before hosting a second-round opponent to be determined on Sunday, Sept. 10, at 3 p.m. at Mohegan Sun Arena.