After a long summer of basketball, the WNBA Finals are here. And for the first time since 2005, the Connecticut Sun are making a run at the title.

It's been a big year for the team. They entered into the post-season with a 23-11 record, the second seed in the playoffs, giving them a bye for the first two rounds.

Speaking to WGBH News before the start of their playoff run, All-Star forward Jonquel Jones said getting into one of the top two playoff spots was a goal for the team from the start.

The Sun were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs each of the past two seasons. In the WNBA playoffs, the first two rounds are single-game eliminations, while the following two rounds are best of five series.

"The last two years have been bittersweet," said Jones. "We've felt like we've played really good regular season basketball, but the single-game eliminations, it was just, you know, it was disheartening, honestly. So you kind of walk away with, you know, feeling like you just had so much more to give and you didn't have an opportunity to show that."

This year, the team took advantage of the chance to play in a series instead of a do or die match-up, sweeping the Los Angeles Sparks to advance to the Finals for the third time in franchise history. They will face the Washington Mystics on Sunday.

It's all been a part of the team's motto: "Burn It Down," a message to let go of the team's past and fully embrace the chance to win a title. Head Coach Curt Miller called the Sun the youngest of the playoff teams, but pointed out the core of the squad has been together since 2016.

"So while we're the youngest team on paper, we're not the youngest team together," he said, as the team was getting ready for the semi-finals. "This core group has played now their fourth year together. I wanted to grow it together, allow them to build a chemistry and a continuity together, and they have."

The team is led by players like Jones — who finished third in MVP voting this year and is nearly averaging a double-double per game this season — and Alyssa Thomas, who made the WNBA All-Star game roster along with Jones.

Meanwhile, guard Jasmine Thomas has been a veteran presence for the team, while Courtney Williams (who has become something of a Twitter star during the playoffs, along with her dad) has been a spark plug for the squad while also being the team's second-highest scorer.

The team they face in the Mystics looks to be their toughest test yet this season.

Led by league MVP Elena Delle Donne, the first WNBA player to join the elite 50-40-90 Club of shooters, the Mystics have been putting on a show all season, and many have described them as the greatest WNBA offense ever.

As a team, Washington scored 3,035 points this season, the only team to break the 3,000 point mark this season.

Not surprisingly, the Mystics are favored to take home the title. But that's put a chip on the shoulders of members of the Sun, who have been derided as a team that is made up of role players.

But the team has re-appropriated that term, making it something of a rallying cry as they get ready for the Finals.

Now all that's left is for the two franchises, both of which have never won a title, to tip-off the series.

WNBA Finals Schedule

Game 1: Sept. 29, Sun at Mystics, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN
Game 2: Oct. 1, Sun at Mystics, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN
Game 3: Oct. 6, Mystics at Sun, 3 p.m. ET, ABC
Game 4*: Oct. 8, Mystics at Sun, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN 2
Game 5*: Oct. 10, Sun at Mystics, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN 2

*if necessary