[Al Skierkiewicz]

Yes,
The cell may be just shy of running out of energy at 10.5 volts. For that matter even the lower cutoff voltage may not show a partially damaged cell. The lower voltage will catch more defective cells than at 10.5 volts in my opinion. In some cases, internal temperature may exacerbate the intermittent connection. I had one battery that confused me for a while because when the cell got close to dropping off the graph, it suddenly produced a lot of "noise" over a period of 20-30 minutes before dying. These voltage peaks and dips were several volts. I came to the conclusion that the cell had partial damage and the noise was caused by the plate intermittently making and then breaking contact with the terminal plate.