Team Heat Check: Atlanta Dream Run Hot, Toronto Tempo Run Cold (WNBA)

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

Who's hot

Nobody is playing better than Atlanta Dream right now. The record says 9-1 over their last 10; the points column says even more, a +123 margin that works out to 97.3 scored and 85.0 allowed a night.

The chase belongs to Minnesota Lynx, who have gone 9-1 with a +89 margin of their own.

Indiana Fever (8-2) round out the warm end of the ledger.

For scale, the league as a whole is averaging 88.5 points a game over this window, Atlanta Dream are clearing that bar by 8.8 a night all on their own.

The deep freeze

Toronto Tempo are the cold front. They have gone 1-9 over their last 10, and the -126 margin underneath means the losses have not even been close, roughly 12.6 points a game the wrong way.

Los Angeles Sparks (1-9) share the cold row, for whatever comfort that provides.

In between the extremes it gets crowded, Las Vegas Aces at 5-5 and Chicago Sky at 5-5 are basically sharing a seat, and the next series either way will split them.

At a glance

For the fuller picture, the five best recent records in the league:

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.

The schedule cooperates, too, Toronto Tempo face Seattle Storm next, so this story gets its next chapter almost immediately.