Toronto Tempo vs. Atlanta Dream Prediction: Dream Favored by 13.5 as Tempo Skid Hits Eight

The Toronto Tempo have lost eight straight, and the Atlanta Dream are lining up as the biggest favorite on the WNBA board Monday night at Gateway Center.

Quick take:

• Pick: Atlanta Dream -13.5
• Why: Toronto is missing its best perimeter defender and leading scorer from the first half of the season, and the Dream are simply the deeper, more talented roster top to bottom.
• The number to watch: Toronto is 1-9 in its last 10 games.

Atlanta enters at 19-12 and sitting third in the Eastern Conference, while Toronto has cratered to 10-21 and 13th overall in the league. The Tempo have dropped eight consecutive games, a stretch that has coincided with the extended absence of guard Brittney Sykes, who has been out since mid-June with a plantar fascia injury and has no firm timetable to return.

Why Vegas Isn’t Even Pretending This Is Close

The number opened with Atlanta as roughly a 13.5-point favorite and has held firm across the market, with the Dream’s moneyline sitting in the neighborhood of -700 to -800 depending on the book, against a Toronto price north of +490. That’s about as lopsided as WNBA lines get, and it reflects two teams trending in opposite directions — Atlanta fighting for playoff seeding, Toronto playing out the string in its expansion season. The total has settled around 186.5, with slightly more juice on the under given Toronto’s offense ranks among the league’s worst in scoring efficiency.

Sykes’ Absence Has Gutted Toronto’s Ceiling

Before her injury, Sykes was averaging 20.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists across 15 games and was clearly Toronto’s most dangerous perimeter scorer. Without her, the offensive burden has fallen on Marina Mabrey, who’s actually seen her scoring spike to 20.6 points per game as the de facto first option — but she’s shooting it a lot to get there, and the supporting cast around her, headlined by Julie Allemand and Nyara Sabally, simply doesn’t create enough easy looks. Toronto ranks in the bottom third of the league in scoring at 87.4 points per game while surrendering 93.7, a minus-6.3 net differential that lines up with a team that’s lost eight in a row.

Atlanta, meanwhile, has the look of a legitimate playoff team even with some late-season attrition of its own. Rhyne Howard has been terrific, averaging 17.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and a career-high 2.4 steals, and she’s scored at least 19 points in three straight appearances while hitting better than 42.9 percent from three in each of those games. Angel Reese, acquired from Chicago in a trade that cost Atlanta two first-round picks, leads the WNBA in rebounding and has been a near-nightly double-double threat, though she’s dealt with a couple of leg scares this season that bear watching. Allisha Gray rounds out a genuinely three-headed attack that Toronto simply doesn’t have an answer for defensively.

Toronto is 1-9 over its last 10 games, while Atlanta has won nine of its last ten heading toward this stretch of the schedule.

That kind of form gap rarely closes on a random Monday in August, especially with the injury report tilted so heavily in Atlanta’s favor. Toronto’s interior defense has also been a soft spot all year, ranking near the bottom of the league in defensive rebounding, and that plays directly into Reese’s hands. Books have shortened Atlanta’s number just enough to signal real confidence, not just public perception, in this one.

Prediction and Best Bet

Atlanta’s talent advantage, particularly with Sykes sidelined for Toronto, should be enough to comfortably cover a number in the mid-teens. The Dream have shown they can get comfortable leads and control tempo against inferior competition, and Toronto’s offense has struggled to keep pace with anyone remotely competent defensively over its current skid. For bettors weighing sportsbook options for a game like this, it’s worth comparing lines — checking a FanDuel promo code against the market before locking in a number is never a bad habit on a lopsided spread like this one.

The pick:

1. Prediction: Atlanta Dream 95, Toronto Tempo 80
2. Best Bet: Atlanta Dream -13.5

Atlanta’s depth and Toronto’s injury-riddled, skidding roster make this one of the more lopsided nights on the WNBA slate.