Let $(W, S)$ be a Coxeter system of rank $n$ and let $p_{(W, S)}(t)$ be its growth function. It is known that $p_{(W, S)}(q^{-1}) < \infty$ holds for all $n \leq q \in \mathbb{N}$. In this paper we will show that this still holds for $q = n-1$, if $(W, S)$ is $2$-spherical. Moreover, we will prove that $p_{(W, S)}(q^{-1}) = \infty$ holds for $q = n-2$, if the Coxeter diagram of $(W, S)$ is the complete graph. These two results provide a complete characterization of the finiteness of the growth function in the case of $2$-spherical Coxeter systems with complete Coxeter diagram.