(Photo credit: Chris Jones)

There is still plenty on the line for the surging Dallas Wings when they square off against the Los Angeles Sparks on Thursday in Arlington, Texas, as the WNBA returns from its 16-day FIBA Women's World Cup break.

Both teams have four games remaining in the regular season. The Wings are already assured of a playoff spot, while Los Angeles has been eliminated from the postseason and is looking to play the spoiler role in Dallas' attempt to improve its seeding.

It will be Dallas' first trip to the playoffs since 2023, as the Wings have already set a record for wins since the franchise moved from Tulsa prior to the 2016 season.

The Wings (24-16) head into the restart on a four-game winning streak and are tied with Washington and New York for sixth place in the standings. Each of Dallas' remaining opponents is under the playoff line. Dallas can maximize its chances of climbing to a higher seed by winning out against Los Angeles, Phoenix twice, and Seattle, but it will also need help, as Washington holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Wings.

Dallas would get the higher seed if it's tied with New York under the same scenario.

'I've said before -- every game has its same value,' Dallas coach Jose Fernandez explained Tuesday. 'LA's coming in here, and we got to protect our home floor. We're going to (try to) win every single game that we play down the stretch. Where we end up will be determined by how we play these next few.'

Dallas could be missing a key cog in its lineup after veteran center Alanna Smith suffered a lower-leg injury while playing for Australia in the Women's World Cup. Smith was in street clothes during the Wings' workout on Tuesday and is day-to-day, according to Fernandez.

The Wings are already without Azzi Fudd, the league's top draft pick in April, for the season because of a knee injury. Fudd, one of Dallas' top perimeter defenders and 3-point shooters, averaged 13.1 points and 1.7 steals while shooting 39.7% from beyond the arc.

The Sparks (15-25) will miss the postseason for the sixth straight year and enter the final stretch in 11th place in the 15-team league. Los Angeles has won two in a row and three of its past four games, including a 90-74 victory over fellow also-ran Seattle in the final game before the break.

The final stretch will also conclude the 15-year career of Nneka Ogwumike, who will leave the Sparks as the team's all-time leading scorer when she retires at the end of the year.

Ogwumike said last week that she is 'leaving the team' to fellow Stanford alum Cameron Brink, who she raved about in an interview with IX Sports last month.

'I just want to make sure she understands that not only does she belong in this league, belong on this team, but she is a huge asset,' Ogwumike said about Brink.

'I'm so grateful to be able to play with her this season. I'm pouring as much as I have left into these last few games. I'm still going to be around and helping her out.'

Three of Los Angeles' final games are against teams that qualified for the playoffs, and all four are against opponents ahead of it in the standings.

--Field Level Media