A lot of NBA media members thinks key foul call in Warriors-Rockets was wrong

Jimmy Butler III of the Golden State Warriors reacts after making a basket against the Houston Rockets in Game 4 of the Western Conference first-round NBA playoffs at Chase Center on April 28, 2025, in San Francisco.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

The NBA found that there were no officiating errors in the final two minutes of Monday’s Game 4 playoff matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, despite one call that some in the national media took issue with: the Dillon Brooks foul on Jimmy Butler’s 3-point attempt.

With about a minute left in Monday’s game, a double-teamed Steph Curry threw a behind-the-back pass to Butler for a corner three. In the split-second before taking his shot, the veteran forward waited just long enough for Brooks to approach him defensively. The ball clanked off the rim, but the Houston player’s hand was on Butler’s midsection when he fired the ball into the air, forcing officials to call a foul.

The Rockets then called a timeout to challenge the play, but the officials’ decision stood. The Dubs would hold onto the lead for the remainder of the game and come out with a 109-106 win.

The prevailing opinion in the national media was that this call was, at the very least, suspect. On TNT’s “Inside the NBA” postgame show shortly after the broadcast, analyst Charles Barkley took issue with it because of the controversial no-call that happened on the final shot of Sunday’s Pistons-Knicks game.

“I hate this call right here,” Barkley said as the highlight of the foul played on the broadcast. “… There’s less contact on this play than there was in that damn Knick game yesterday.” Shaquille O’Neal interrupts with, “You can’t touch him,” to which Barkley replies, “I don’t want to hear that. No, I don’t want to hear that. The guy knocked the hell out of [Pistons guard Tim] Hardaway yesterday. He’s going to call him touching him on the stomach.”

When “SportsCenter” went over the highlights of the Dubs’ Game 4 win, host Scott Van Pelt also wasn’t fond of the call asking, “Where’s the foul?” as the slow-motion replay of Brooks’ contact on Butler played. ESPN’s pushback against the call continued on the “Get Up” morning show, with analysts Monica McNutt and Jay Williams both expressing displeasure with the whistle.

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“Come on, man, this is playoff basketball, that’s not a foul,” Williams said.

“Ahh, I don’t like it,” McNutt said.

The league, however, thought differently, according to the game’s Last Two Minute report.

“Brooks (HOU) extends a hand into Butler III’s (GSW) body, affecting his jump shot attempt,” the report reads.

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Yet that might not be enough to quiet any critics about the whistle, especially since the foul call happened baited out by Butler. The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson II shared on the “Warriors Plus Minus” podcast that the Dubs star told him he knows Brooks has a habit of putting his left hand on the man he’s guarding. It’s difficult to spot when someone drives to the hoop, but on a jump shot, the contact is clear and present. It also helped that Butler “sold the call,” as Thompson recounted.

“So he obviously kind of sold the call and his hand — he knew his hand was going to be there,” the reporter said. “So it worked. So that’s just like film study savvy, like OG, this where, this is how, this is always the Warriors advantage in this series, even in a close game, the little things that they’ll do to make a difference.”

Whether this trap works again will have to wait until Game 5 of the series on Wednesday in Houston. For now, all that matters is that it not only worked to get the Dubs the win, but it was legal as well.