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

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

Atlanta Dream own the league's best recent ledger at 9-1, and the +156 points margin underneath it says the record is earned. Per game the numbers read 95.7 for and 80.1 against, a gap that does not happen by accident across 10 games.

The chase belongs to Las Vegas Aces, who have gone 8-2 with a +118 margin of their own.

Washington Mystics (8-2) round out the warm end of the ledger.

For scale, the league as a whole is averaging 85.7 points a game over this window, Atlanta Dream are clearing that bar by 10.0 a night all on their own.

The deep freeze

Then there is Toronto Tempo. A 1-9 stretch is ugly on its own; pair it with a -155 points margin and it stops looking like bad luck. They are being outscored by about 15.5 points a game, and no scheduling quirk explains that away.

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

The middle of the table is where the real congestion lives: New York Liberty (6-4) and Minnesota Lynx (6-4) 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.

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