LOS ANGELES — After spending much of the week discussing growth on the defensive end of the floor, the Dallas Wings had to show it Friday night.

Against a Los Angeles Sparks squad that featured Kelsey Plum back from injury, Dallas closed with its strongest stretch of basketball of the night, outscoring the Sparks 27-18 in the fourth quarter to pick up a 104-96 win at Crypto.com Arena despite Odyssey Sims’ left ankle injury and a late injury concern involving Aziaha James.

The victory improved Dallas’ record to 7-3, extended its winning streak to four games and moved the Wings to 2-0 in Commissioner’s Cup play.

The game had 18 lead changes and eight ties.

The Sparks led 28-24 after one quarter, 55-54 at the half and 78-77 heading to the final period. Plum returned from injury and finished with 27 points and six assists for Los Angeles, which embodied much of the offensive firepower Dallas prepared for all week.

“They just have threats from all angles, and they know their roles,” Arike Ogunbowale said before the game. “They just have a bunch of vets that have been consistent throughout their careers.”

The Sparks certainly looked that way early, shooting 66.7 percent from the field in the opening quarter and racing to a nine-point lead.

Dallas answered behind Ogunbowale, Paige Bueckers and Jessica Shepard.

Ogunbowale had 17 points in the first half and finished with a season-high 30 points, six rebounds and six assists. It was her 24th career regular-season game with at least 30 points.

“It was great to see the ball go in the basket today,” head coach Jose Fernandez said.

Bueckers built upon her strong start to the season, notching her first double-double of the year with 18 points and a career-high 14 assists. The assist total tied the Wings franchise record for assists in a game.

“Paige is such a great decision-maker,” Fernandez said. “Down the stretch, I have total trust in her putting us in the right things to go to.”

Bueckers said her teammates helped her get to the milestone.

“My teammates just did a really good job of getting people open, of screening, of cutting, of moving without the ball and just making the game easy for me,” Bueckers said.

Shepard continued her Player of the Week performance with 22 points, 15 rebounds and five assists. Dallas had 30 assists on 41 made field goals and all five starters finished in double figures.

Ahead of the game, Dallas Weekly asked Kelsey Plum what makes Dallas so tough to guard.

“Shot makers,” Plum said. “All of them make shots. Tough shots. Contested shots. Three-level scorers.”

But the game’s most pivotal stretches came after Odyssey Sims went down.

With Dallas already playing shorthanded in the backcourt, Aziaha James logged big minutes defensively on Plum late in the game as Dallas fought to close it out.

“I think it’s our aggression,” Shepard said. “Za had some huge minutes for us there guarding KP that I think really helped flip the momentum.”

Head coach Jose Fernandez praised James after the game.

“Without O going down, your team is limited in substitutions,” Fernandez said. “But Aziaha James played really, really well. Defended well.”

The fourth quarter served as a microcosm of the growth Dallas addressed all week.

Ahead of the game, Sims spoke to the narrative surrounding the franchise this season.

“Dallas’ identity has always been they can put points on the board, but defensively, not the best defensive team in the league,” Sims said. “We’re trying to eliminate showing spurts at a time and really work on getting it to a full game.”

That improvement on the defensive end, Fudd noted, came from trust.

“I think we’re doing a great job of playing team defense, not leaving people on an island and just making things hard,” she said.

Dallas needed those improvements with its decreased rotation in the fourth quarter.

“I think our guys talked a lot about the fourth quarter and how important the fourth quarter is,” Fernandez said. “There were some big plays in that fourth quarter. Big deflections. Big rebounds. Total team effort today.”

There is still room for improvement defensively for Dallas, which allowed Los Angeles to shoot 53.7 percent from the field and tally 96 points. But after a week of talking about communication and connectivity on that end of the floor, Dallas found just enough stops Friday to seal one of its most impressive victories of the season.

As Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said after the game: “In the last four minutes, they willed it to happen, and we didn’t.”

For a Dallas team that spent all week talking about identity, there might not have been a better way to prove it Friday.