diff --git a/pkg/analyzer/lib/src/error/best_practices_verifier.dart b/pkg/analyzer/lib/src/error/best_practices_verifier.dart
index 0e76c6184f8..5ee814de87d 100644
--- a/pkg/analyzer/lib/src/error/best_practices_verifier.dart
+++ b/pkg/analyzer/lib/src/error/best_practices_verifier.dart
@@ -613,7 +613,8 @@ class BestPracticesVerifier extends RecursiveAstVisitor<void> {
   @override
   void visitPostfixExpression(PostfixExpression node) {
     _deprecatedVerifier.postfixExpression(node);
-    if (node.operand.staticType?.isDartCoreNull ?? false) {
+    if (node.operator.type == TokenType.BANG &&
+        node.operand.staticType.isDartCoreNull) {
       _errorReporter.reportErrorForNode(HintCode.NULL_CHECK_ALWAYS_FAILS, node);
     }
     super.visitPostfixExpression(node);
diff --git a/pkg/analyzer/test/src/diagnostics/null_check_always_fails_test.dart b/pkg/analyzer/test/src/diagnostics/null_check_always_fails_test.dart
index e21d37c0e62..ce1298ba56c 100644
--- a/pkg/analyzer/test/src/diagnostics/null_check_always_fails_test.dart
+++ b/pkg/analyzer/test/src/diagnostics/null_check_always_fails_test.dart
@@ -37,10 +37,10 @@ void f() {
   test_nullLiteral_parenthesized() async {
     await assertErrorsInCode(r'''
 void f() {
-  null!;
+  (null)!;
 }
 ''', [
-      error(HintCode.NULL_CHECK_ALWAYS_FAILS, 13, 5),
+      error(HintCode.NULL_CHECK_ALWAYS_FAILS, 13, 7),
     ]);
   }