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.

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 +126 margin of their own.

And do not sleep on Washington Mystics, quietly 8-2 across their last 10.

The whole league is averaging 85.8 points a game in this stretch, which makes Atlanta Dream outrunning that number by 9.9 per night the loudest stat on the page.

The deep freeze

At the bottom of the temperature map sit Toronto Tempo: 1-9 in their last 10, -163 on points margin. That is about 16.3 a game in the wrong direction, and no lineup shuffle fixes it overnight.

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

In between the extremes it gets crowded, New York Liberty at 6-4 and Minnesota Lynx at 6-4 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

As always, watch where record and points margin tell different stories about the same club. The margin tends to know first.

The schedule cooperates, too, Atlanta Dream face Washington Mystics next, so this story gets its next chapter almost immediately.