WNBA Heat Check, Atlanta Dream 9-1 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.

Burning up

Start with Atlanta Dream. They have won 9 of their last 10, and they have not been sneaking past anyone: the points margin over that stretch is +156, which breaks down to about 95.2 scored and 79.6 allowed per game. That is the arithmetic of a team winning on merit, not on bounces.

Right behind them sit Las Vegas Aces, 8-2 over the same kind of stretch and +131 on points margin, quieter, but pointed the same direction.

And do not sleep on Golden State Valkyries, quietly 8-2 across their last 10.

Some context helps: across every club in the sample, scoring sits at 85.8 points per game right now. Atlanta Dream are beating the league's own pace by 9.4 a game.

Who's cold

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.

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

In between the extremes it gets crowded, Indiana Fever at 5-5 and Phoenix Mercury at 4-6 are basically sharing a seat, and the next series either way will split them.

At a glance

The top of the ledger, at a glance:

The fine print

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.

One to circle: Atlanta Dream meet Washington Mystics in their next game, and we will find out quickly whether this stretch travels.