WNBA Heat Check, Atlanta Dream 8-2 in Their Last 10

Ten games is not a season, but it is a mood, and moods decide a lot of games. The current mood around WNBA: Atlanta Dream keep winning, Toronto Tempo keep losing, and everybody else lives somewhere in the weather between.

The warm end of the table

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 +158, which breaks down to about 97.4 scored and 81.6 allowed per game. That is the arithmetic of a team winning on merit, not on bounces.

Golden State Valkyries are the closest thing to company at 8-2, with a +118 points margin that says the record is no fluke.

And do not sleep on New York Liberty, quietly 7-3 across their last 10.

Some context helps: across every club in the sample, scoring sits at 86.3 points per game right now. Atlanta Dream are beating the league's own pace by 11.1 a game.

Who's cold

Toronto Tempo are the cold front. They have gone 1-9 over their last 10, and the -149 margin underneath means the losses have not even been close, roughly 14.9 points a game the wrong way.

Connecticut Sun are not far behind on the misery index at 2-8.

The middle of the table is where the real congestion lives: Washington Mystics (7-3) and Minnesota Lynx (7-3) are separated by almost nothing, and one good weekend reshuffles the whole neighborhood.

By the numbers

The top of the ledger, at a glance:

Worth remembering

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: Atlanta Dream meet New York Liberty in their next game, and we will find out quickly whether this stretch travels.