Luka Doncic is rising to the moment. It looks too big for the Timberwolves.

MINNEAPOLIS — Luka Doncic did whatever he wanted, then said whatever he liked.

For the second time in three days, the Dallas Mavericks guard held the ball with a chance to administer heartbreak to the Minnesota Timberwolves. For the second time in three days, he did exactly that, leaving Timberwolves stars Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert to look powerless by comparison.

After hitting a breezy midrange jumper to steal Game 1 of the Western Conference finals Wednesday, Doncic came through with a sequel that was better than the original. With his team trailing by two points in the closing moments of Friday’s Game 2, Doncic sashayed side-to-side to shake Gobert before tiptoeing backward for a three-pointer that swished through with 3.1 seconds left to deliver Dallas a 109-108 victory. The 25-year-old sensation underscored his latest game-winner — which capped an 18-point comeback and reduced Target Center crowd to a queasy silence — with a string of expletives in Gobert’s direction.

“I was speaking Slovenian,” Doncic joked after finishing with 32 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds to give the Mavericks a 2-0 lead with the series shifting to Dallas for Sunday’s Game 3. “I don’t decide what I’m going to look for before the play. I just see what the defense gives me. I just saw some space and decided to shoot a three. Get to my spot and step back. That’s it.”

Doncic’s silky dribbling, pure shot and crude expulsion provided a fitting end for the Timberwolves, whose three stars continued to flunk the biggest test of their careers. A frazzled Edwards remained mired in a shooting slump. An invisible Towns, unable to find his scoring touch, was benched for the final eight minutes. And an overwhelmed Gobert, the Pinocchio to Doncic’s Geppetto on the fateful final play, lost the interior battle to Dallas’s unheralded center tandem of Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II, who combine to make less than half of his $41 million salary.

This was a cataclysmic and unforgivable loss for the Timberwolves, who opened the night with an appropriate level of urgency before crumbling in the fourth quarter and blowing a five-point lead with a little over a minute to play.

Minnesota built a 55-37 lead midway through the second quarter with aggressive early drives by Edwards, quality outside shooting by Naz Reid and steady game management from Mike Conley. The Timberwolves looked determined to move past a lethargic Game 1 showing, taking a 60-48 lead into halftime. Doncic briefly left the court for the locker room late in the first quarter with ongoing knee pain, further raising Minnesota’s hopes to even the series.

But strong nights from Reid, who scored a team-high 23 points and hit seven three-pointers, and Conley, who posted 18 points and five assists, were not enough to compensate for Minnesota’s struggling stars. If one of Edwards, Towns or Gobert had played to his typical standard, the Timberwolves would have been breathing easier on their flight to Texas. None did, and Reid’s last chance to save the day with a three-pointer rimmed off at the buzzer.

Edwards, who topped 40 points three times in a five-game stretch earlier this postseason, has hurtled back to the mean and managed just 21 points on 5-for-17 shooting in Game 2. The 22-year-old guard has shot 17 for 57 (29.8%) over his past three games, and he has alternated between playing too fast and too passively in the West finals. The result has been a slew of ugly, backbreaking turnovers: He spent Game 1 sailing passes into the stands as if he were armed with a free T-shirt cannon, and he threw the ball away with 12 seconds left in Game 2 to set up Doncic’s game-winner.

“[Edwards] has got to get more in transition,” Timberwolves Coach Chris Finch said. “He started the game with great burst and was really going downhill well, and then he phased out as the game went along. He went in [the paint] a few times. I thought he could have done it more, and we need him to do it more. He’s got to pick up his decision-making.”

Towns was also maddening to watch as he made 4 of 16 shots and rustled up a meek 15 points. Finch decided he had seen enough and pulled Towns with 8:40 remaining, a no-brainer given Reid was shooting better and making smarter decisions.

“I’m with winning,” Towns said of his benching. “Whatever it takes to win. Naz had it going, and it was Coach’s decision. I’m fully supportive of my coaching staff. I wouldn’t question them one bit.”

With Dallas’s defense packing the paint and giving extra attention to Edwards, Towns’s inability to stretch the floor has been a critical weakness. The four-time all-star, who once dubbed himself the “greatest big man shooter of all time,” has seen his three-point percentage plummet from 41.6% during the regular season to a paltry 21.2% (7 for 33) over Minnesota’s past six games. Not surprisingly, the Timberwolves are 2-4 during that stretch.

Yet Gobert’s struggles defensively might be the biggest issue of all. The Mavericks have exploited him at every turn, pulling him away from the hoop in pick and rolls that he has struggled to defend and feasting on lob passes to Lively and Gafford that he hasn’t been able to interrupt.

Doncic and Kyrie Irving have consistently found quality midrange shots when given room by Gobert. In a drastic attempt to stop the bleeding, the Timberwolves took their four-time defensive player of the year off the court for stretches of crunchtime in Game 2.

Of course, Doncic delighted in ending Gobert’s tough night in cutthroat fashion, luring him out to the perimeter with help from a Lively screen. Mavericks Coach Jason Kidd said he had empowered Doncic to decide whether to take the potential game-winning three or to try to force overtime with a two-point shot.

Following a pair of quick crossover dribbles to get Gobert off balance, Doncic used a third to feint to his left and force the 7-foot-1 center to overcommit by the arc. Smelling blood, Doncic then ripped the ball between his legs from left to right, causing an off-balance Gobert to stumble toward the paint.

Though he stayed on his feet, Gobert couldn’t recover in time to stop Doncic’s three-pointer from just behind the line. Finch said he had hoped to guard Doncic tightly on the perimeter to discourage him from taking a potential go-ahead three-pointer.

“We switched on the pick and roll,” Gobert said. “I was in [isolation] on Luka, and he hit a big-time shot. I let my team down on the last play. They believed in me to get a stop, and he scored a three.”

The sequence reflected as poorly on Minnesota’s coaches as it did on Gobert. The Timberwolves didn’t learn their lesson after single-covering Doncic at the end of Game 1, and the best player remaining in these playoffs made it look easy as he burned them again.

Now, the wobbly Timberwolves are left to wonder whether they can recapture the magic of their second-round dethroning of the Denver Nuggets. Their stars need to step forward and muster an immediate response, otherwise Doncic’s Game 2 winner will be remembered as the series-deciding kill shot.

“We wanted to get [Doncic] space and let him do what he does,” Kidd said. “He loves that stage. He doesn’t run from it.”