Spend a little time with the Minnesota T-Wolves, and you can unravel some of the great mysteries of the NBA.

Like, where do players go during halftime?

You’d probably guess the locker room. That’s right -- unless you’re T-Wolves reserves William Avery and Maurice Evans. When the halftime buzzer sounded at the Knicks/T-Wolves game Friday night, Avery and Evans made their way up to the concourse of Madison Square Garden and headed straight for the press room. Apparently, the women’s Final Four, featuring Avery’s beloved Duke Blue Devils, was more important than what Flip Saunders had to say about being up 20 on a hapless Knicks team.

“Aw shoot, they’re down by five,” said Avery when he got a look at the TV. “C’mon y’all, let’s get it together."

“What are you guys doing up here?” I asked him.

“I’ve got to see who’s winning,” said Avery. “We’re allowed to be up here.” Okay.

At the commercial break, Avery and Evans took off. Maybe they were afraid Coach Flip would realize they were missing.

I stayed to watch the last few minutes of the Duke game. Then the two renegade Wolves came walking back into the press room with a couple of trays of grub from the Ranch 1 concession stand. “What did I miss?” asked Will.

“Not much, Devils are still down five,” I told him. In between bites of his chicken sandwich, he cheered a Duke three and whined about a bad call.

Then I heard the horn sound in the arena, signaling one minute left until the third quarter.

“C’mon, let’s get out of here,” I said to them.

“We’ll meet you down there,” Avery replied. “I want to see who wins.”

I slowly waded through the Garden faithful back to my baseline seat, next to the Wolves bench. The two players were nowhere to be found. Four minutes into the third quarter, the Timberwolves ran the lead to 30, and Avery and Evans were still MIA.

Finally, with 7:07 to go in the third, they made their way to two seats on the end of the bench. Avery looked disgusted.

“Did they win?” I asked him. He shook his head and shrugged.

At least he got to watch a good game.

Chris Palmer covers The NBA Life for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at christopher.palmer@espnmag.com.