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

Form is the story the standings tell slowly and the last ten games tell fast. Right now the fast version of WNBA is easy to summarize: Atlanta Dream are rolling, Toronto Tempo are reeling, and the gap between those two feelings is enormous.

Burning up

Atlanta Dream own the league's best recent ledger at 8-2, and the +110 points margin underneath it says the record is earned. Per game the numbers read 97.0 for and 86.0 against, a gap that does not happen by accident across 10 games.

The chase belongs to Indiana Fever, who have gone 8-2 with a +83 margin of their own.

And do not sleep on Minnesota Lynx, quietly 8-2 across their last 10.

For scale, the league as a whole is averaging 86.7 points a game over this window, Atlanta Dream are clearing that bar by 10.3 a night all on their own.

Who's cold

Then there is Toronto Tempo. A 1-9 stretch is ugly on its own; pair it with a -138 points margin and it stops looking like bad luck. They are being outscored by about 13.8 points a game, and no scheduling quirk explains that away.

They have company at the cold end: Connecticut Sun, 2-8 over the same window.

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

At a glance

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

One more thing

One reading tip before you go: points margin travels better than record. A fat margin with a modest record usually means the wins are coming; the reverse usually means they are not.