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

Start with Atlanta Dream. They have won 8 of their last 10, and they have not been sneaking past anyone: the points margin over that stretch is +110, which breaks down to about 97.0 scored and 86.0 allowed per game. That is the arithmetic of a team winning on merit, not on bounces.

Indiana Fever are the closest thing to company at 8-2, with a +83 points margin that says the record is no fluke.

Minnesota Lynx (8-2) round out the warm end of the ledger.

Some context helps: across every club in the sample, scoring sits at 86.7 points per game right now. Atlanta Dream are beating the league's own pace by 10.3 a game.

Who's cold

At the bottom of the temperature map sit Toronto Tempo: 1-9 in their last 10, -138 on points margin. That is about 13.8 a game in the wrong direction, and no lineup shuffle fixes it overnight.

Connecticut Sun (2-8) share the cold row, for whatever comfort that provides.

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.

By the numbers

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

The fine print

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.

Next up on the slate: Atlanta Dream against Connecticut Sun. Check back after that one goes final.