This weekend's home-and-home series with the Chicago Sky could be looked at as a playoff trial run for the Connecticut Sun.

The teams play Sunday for the second time in three days, just like a playoff series. They both have to make adjustments on the fly having spent Saturday traveling to Connecticut. And, yes, there’s a little fire to the series after Chicago’s 97-86 win on Friday night.

Sunday’s game is at Mohegan Sun Arena this afternoon at 3 (NBCSB).

The Sun (17-13) have already qualified for the playoffs and are trying to clinch a home playoff game. They have four games left in the regular season, all at home.

Chicago led the entire game Friday and by as much as 65-45 with six minutes, 11 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Sky’s Courtney Vandersloot scored 20 points with 15 assists, one off the record set twice by Ticha Penicheiro (16). Vandersloot has averaged a league-high 8.6 assists this season.

Chicago (11-19) shot 54.2-percent against Connecticut.

“There are nights where you get outplayed,” Sun head coach Curt Miller said. “Chicago outplayed us. We did not play tremendously poor. We still scored in the upper eighties and did some (good) things, but they were just so good offensively that we couldn’t get them out of rhythm.

“They were better than us in every aspect and they were tremendous. They looked like the team I think we all across the league fear they could be.”

The game got testy late. It started when Vandersloot intentionally fouled Jonquel Jones as she was trying to bring the ball up with the Sky ahead 85-75 and 16.3 seconds left.

Sky coach Amber Stocks called a timeout after Jones’ free throws to draw up a play. Chicago had tied the single-game assist record (35) set last season by the Minnesota Lynx.

Miller, who worked with Stocks when they were both Los Angeles Sparks’ assistants, was incensed and repeatedly yelled towards the Sky bench.

“My players are looking at me like, ‘what is going on?,’” Miller said. “I said, ‘they’re probably playing for the record’, and asked them, ‘do you want to foul.?’ … They said let’s foul. I said, ‘I’ll support you.’”

Jasmine Thomas fouled Vandersloot twice to put her on the free throw line and dribbled out the clock to end the game. Miller and Stocks exchanged handshakes after the game. Miller, as he passed by Stocks on his way back to the locker room, said something to her again.

“I was just disappointed,” Miller said. “We’ve had opportunities on the last possession to tie or break some significant records not only in franchise history but WNBA history, and I wouldn’t let us shoot.

“Amber and I are incredibly close friends. We consider ourselves brother and sister. It doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed. I shared my disappointment, obviously.”

Connecticut (17-13) is one of seven teams that have qualified for the playoffs. It is fifth in the overall standings and could finish as high as third. The third and fourth seeds get both a home game and a bye into the second round which, like the first round, is single elimination.

The Sun are two games behind the Washington Mystics (19-11) and one game behind the Los Angeles Sparks (18-12). They split their season series with Washington, and won the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Sparks. They host Los Angeles on the final day of the regular season (Aug. 19).

Connecticut is tied with the defending champion Minnesota Lynx (17-13) but won the head-to-head tiebreaker. They play at Connecticut on Friday.

The Phoenix Mercury (17-14) are in seventh place and trail the Sun by 1½ games. Phoenix owns the head-to-head tiebreaker.

The Dallas Wings (14-16), Las Vegas Aces (13-18) and Chicago are vying for the final seed.

n.griffen@theday.com