Connecticut Sun 2020 schedule announced

The Connecticut Sun released their regular season schedule Monday afternoon, and they will tip off the 2020 campaign against the Minnesota Lynx on July 26 at noon.

The full 22-game WNBA slate, plus playoffs, will be played at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., amid the pandemic.

Connecticut’s opener will be televised by ESPN. It’s one of three regular-season games the Sun will play on ESPN/ESPN2. CBS Sports Network is tentatively scheduled to broadcast eight others. The team’s local TV schedule will be announced in the coming days.

The Sun will play three more games the first week, meeting Washington in a Finals rematch on July 28, Los Angeles on July 30 on ESPN, and Minnesota again on Aug. 1.

Connecticut’s first contest against the 2018 WNBA champion Seattle Storm — featuring former UConn stars Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart and Morgan Tuck — will be Aug. 4 on ESPN2. The Sun will also play Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, Indiana, Las Vegas, New York and Phoenix in August.

The Sun will close out the regular season Sept. 11 against Atlanta.

The regular season was supposed to begin May 15, with training camps opening a month prior, but was postponed due to COVID-19. Each team’s schedule has been reduced from 36 games, but the traditional playoff format — singleelimination first- and second-round games and bestof-five semifinals and finals — remains intact.

The revised schedule will begin July 25 with three games: Seattle-New York (noon, ESPN), Los-AngelesPhoenix (3 p.m., ABC) and Indiana-Washington (5 p.m., CBS Sports Network).