The games return for real on Sunday when the Connecticut Sun open the second half of their WNBA season on the road against the Dallas Wings (4 p.m., NESN Plus).

The Sun (14-6) returned from their month-long Olympic break on Thursday night, losing the reigning WNBA champion Seattle Storm 79-57 in the inaugural Commissioner's Cup game in Phoenix.

But that was just an exhibition. Sunday's game against Dallas (9-12) counts as Connecticut begins the fight to finish with the league's best overall record and the playoff's No. 1 seed with just a month to go in the regular season.

"I thought they had their legs," Sun coach Curt Miller said of Thursday's loss to the Storm "Stewie (Breanna Stewart) made really tough shots there early. They looked like three players averaging 30 minutes in the Olympics, we looked like it was our first game in nearly five weeks. I worried a little bit about that. We couldn't disrupt them."

Miller hopes Thursday's exhibition helps the Sun against the Wings, a team Connecticut beat 80-70 in its only regular-season meeting on June 20 at Mohegan Sun Arena.

In that game, Dallas led 38-30 at halftime before the Sun took over in the second half and outscored the Wings 50-32, including 28-15 in the third quarter.

Brionna Jones led the Sun with 26 points while DeWanna Bonner had 25 points and 13 rebounds and Kaila Charles also had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.

Connecticut played that game without all-star post Jonquel Jones, who was playing overseas. She has since returned and leads the Sun with averages of 21.0 points and 11.1 rebounds.

Following Sunday's game, the Sun will return to Mohegan Sun Arena for a home-and-home series on Tuesday and Thursday against Minnesota Lynx.