Tuesday night in the Staples Center, the Los Angeles Sparks will have a chance to extend their WNBA-leading 13-1 record. They will have to do so against a Dallas team that has truly found its wings of late and is 4-1 in its last five games.

While the Wings may be playing well in late June, the Sparks have been the talk of the WNBA since the start of the season. Los Angeles opened the year 11-0, the best start in franchise history. It would have been the best in league history if not for the Minnesota Lynx going 12-0 at at the same time. Last week the two unbeatens battled twice and handed each other their first losses of the season.

The Sparks bounced back from their early-week loss to record two wins over the weekend, but the Lynx couldn’t recover from their first defeat of the season to the Sparks on Friday, and ended up dropping their second-straight loss in D.C.

This meant that when the dust settled from the weekend it was the Sparks who had the league’s best record at 13-1, overtaking their Western Conference rival in Minnesota.

A lot of Los Angeles’ success can be attributed to the the depth of their roster. Nneka Ogwumike and Candace Parker are the recognized contributors, but All-Star players like Kristi Toliver and Jantel Lavender off the bench have put their own imprint on this impressive start to the season.

“I think it’s one the best attributes we have,” Parker told reporters during a pregame conference call on Monday. “It causes a lot of problems from a defensive standpoint, because on any given night who do you put your best frontcourt defender on? I think while Kristi has carried a lot of the load, the things Chelsea Gray does off the bench often go unnoticed. She’s phenomenal. At this point we don’t care who does it as long as it gets done.”

It’s this collective attitude that has led to the Sparks’ league-leading 48.8% shooting from the field as well as WNBA-best 20.9 assists per game. Stats like these backup Parker’s sentiment, and give it serious validity. The Sparks’ unselfishness make them a juggernaut.

More importantly, they have suffered the taste of defeat and learned from their mistakes. “We treated last week’s games like more of a series so we were able to watch film and go back to the drawing board,” Parker said. “Coach [Brian Agler] actually told us that every game is like a series. You play each team three times so it’s all about winning that series.”

On the other side of the coin, the Wings are flying in large part because of the return of their superstar point guard Skylar Diggins. Diggins had been held out of game action because of a torn ACL she suffered midway through last season, but she was cleared to play by the season opener this year and has truly found the stride that made her a box office attraction at Notre Dame and through her first three seasons in the Wings organization.

Over her last five games, Diggins is averaging 16.6 points, and dishing out 4.4 assists. There’s no mistake why the Wings are 4-1 in those games.

“Skylar was a little hesitant coming back. She wanted to make sure that she returned at her full potential and I think that was a very, very smart decision,” said Wings forward Glory Johnson. “She’s attacking the basket, she’s not afraid to fall on her knee. She’s fully ready and finally back, and she’s bringing a lot of energy.”

If Diggins is the engine in the Wings’ offense, then rookie Aerial Powers is its accelerator. The 22-year-old complement to Diggins and backcourt mate Odyssey Sims is averaging a very efficient 9.7 points in 18 minutes of game action. Powers has played in each of the Wings’ 15 games this season, coming off the bench in every contest. Her energy provides an immediate spark that lifts Dallas right when they need it most.

“Aerial Powers is, no pun intended, a very powerful player. She’s always been somebody who wants to get to the basket. She’s a guard that can easily out-muscle other guards, but she also likes to get up. She even can almost dunk,” said Johnson. “I really like to compare her game to mine because of how hard she likes to work. She likes to talk and communicate a lot, when she gets more comfortable in this league she’s going to be amazing.”

Matchup to Watch: Odyssey Sims vs. Kristi Toliver 

Who doesn’t like guards who can shoot from all over the gym? When it comes to WNBA guards who have that kind of range, look no further than Odyssey Sims and Kristi Toliver. Sims’ 16.4 points are tops on the Wings while Toliver’s 48.8% shooting from behind the arc lead the Sparks and rank second in the league. She’s one game removed from going 7-for-11 from deep against the Lynx.

By the Numbers: 172.4

The Sparks and Wings are the second and third best scoring teams in the WNBA. The Wings’ 86.8 points per game are the second most, and the Sparks’ 85.6 are third. The first time these two squared off this season, they combined for 170 points. Look for more of the same on Tuesday night.