WASHINGTON, D.C — Starting Friday, the Indiana Fever will be spending nearly a full week in a Connecticut casino.

The Sun officially clinched the No. 3 seed Thursday with a win over the Chicago Sky, and the Fever were prepared for the journey. They're heading straight from Washington D.C., the spot of their final regular-season game against the Mystics, to Uncasville, Connecticut, the home of the Sun.

The Fever and Sun have been projected to play each other in the first round for nearly a week, but it wasn't official until nearly the final second on Thursday night.

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Now, in a full-circle moment, the Fever will play the Sun on the road at Mohegan Sun Arena in a best-of-three series. Indiana started its season at Connecticut, as well, in the first game of the Caitlin Clark era for the Fever.

Connecticut will host the first two games — and it will have a chance to clinch at home if they win both. If Indiana manages to win one of the games in Connecticut, they will bring the series back to Indianapolis for a series-deciding Game 3.

The first game tips off on 3 p.m., Sunday (ABC), and the second is on 7:30 p.m., Wednesday (ESPN).

"It'll be a grind," Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell told IndyStar. "Their veteran leadership, they're All-Stars, Olympians, it's a really great group that we have to go up against. And I think we have to bring our best. Hopefully, we'll be prepared to do that, but we're going to be battle-tested."

This Connecticut Sun team, with most of the same core, was in the WNBA Finals two years ago. That same 2022 season, the Fever won five games.

Now, the much-improved Fever have two straight No. 1 picks and have upgraded heavily. But they're still missing playoff experience.

"I have no starters who've ever played in a playoff game, not one," coach Christie Sides said. "I've got four in the locker room that have played minutes and in the playoffs, but we're trying to figure out what (the starters) need. We're just trying to figure out what they need so on Sunday, they're ready to go."

Mitchell is the most experienced of the starters, but this will be the first time the seven-year veteran has been in the playoffs. Both NaLyssa Smith and Lexie Hull are in their third years with the team (they came in at the five-win season), Aliyah Boston is in her second year and Clark is the record-breaking rookie.

On the flip side, Connecticut has Alyssa Thomas, the 2023 MVP runner-up who led the Sun to the finals in 2022. Thomas also won a gold medal with Team USA in the Paris Olympics. The Sun also has DeWanna Bonner, who won a championship in Phoenix in 2014 and was with Connecticut during the 2022 run. Brionna Jones and DiJonai Carrington both came off the bench during that run, and they've now made their way into the starting lineup as defensive powerhouses.

Indiana went 1-3 against the Sun this season, with two of those losses being by double-digits at Mohegan Sun Arena. Their most recent meeting, though, was a Fever win in August following the Olympic break. It was a sign of a growing Fever team, which clicked after working together a lot during the four-week break.

Still, the Sun are a formidable opponent. But no matter who the Fever drew in the first round of the playoffs, they knew it would going to be a challenge.

And they're prepared for it.

"I think it will be good for us," Smith said. "Of course, it's going to be a challenge, but it's not a challenge we haven't seen yet. And I feel like we're ready."

Follow IndyStar Fever Insider Chloe Peterson on X at @chloepeterson67.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: In playoffs for first time since 2016, Fever ready for Sun challenege