diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 1756367ad37..62febfdee6a 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -98,6 +98,8 @@ Bug Fixes
 
 * SOLR-13285: Updates with enum fields and javabin cause ClassCastException (noble)
 
+* SOLR-13295: Reproducible failure in TestDistributedGrouping (Erick Erickson)
+
 Improvements
 ----------------------
 * SOLR-12999: Index replication could delete segments before downloading segments from master if there is not enough
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/ResponseBuilder.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/ResponseBuilder.java
index f757ad73bf1..913c7104e99 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/ResponseBuilder.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/ResponseBuilder.java
@@ -463,7 +463,7 @@ public class ResponseBuilder
     if (result.isPartialResults()) {
       rsp.getResponseHeader().asShallowMap()
           .put(SolrQueryResponse.RESPONSE_HEADER_PARTIAL_RESULTS_KEY, Boolean.TRUE);
-      if(getResults().docList==null) {
+      if(getResults() != null && getResults().docList==null) {
         getResults().docList = new DocSlice(0, 0, new int[] {}, new float[] {}, 0, 0);
       }
     }