Team Heat Check: Minnesota Lynx Run Hot, Los Angeles Sparks Run Cold (WNBA)

Every WNBA season has a week when the temperature map redraws itself, and this feels like one of them. Minnesota Lynx have become the team nobody wants to see next on the schedule, while Los Angeles Sparks are hunting for anything that resembles a good night.

The warm end of the table

Start with Minnesota Lynx. They have won 10 of their last 10, and they have not been sneaking past anyone: the points margin over that stretch is +102, which breaks down to about 97.0 scored and 86.8 allowed per game. That is the arithmetic of a team winning on merit, not on bounces.

The chase belongs to Indiana Fever, who have gone 9-1 with a +102 margin of their own.

And do not sleep on Atlanta Dream, quietly 8-2 across their last 10.

Some context helps: across every club in the sample, scoring sits at 89.3 points per game right now. Minnesota Lynx are beating the league's own pace by 7.7 a game.

Who's cold

Los Angeles Sparks are the cold front. They have gone 0-10 over their last 10, and the -75 margin underneath means the losses have not even been close, roughly 7.5 points a game the wrong way.

Toronto Tempo are not far behind on the misery index at 1-9.

The middle of the table is where the real congestion lives: Las Vegas Aces (5-5) and Dallas Wings (5-5) are separated by almost nothing, and one good weekend reshuffles the whole neighborhood.

At a glance

Here is the warm half of the form table, last ten games for every club:

One more thing

Records fib a little and points margins fib less. When the two columns disagree about a team, trust the margin, it is the slower liar.

One to circle: Los Angeles Sparks meet Connecticut Sun in their next game, and we will find out quickly whether this stretch travels.