In this current situation, playing 2K with crowds fully disabled brought the whole new meaning whereas before the outbreak it's unusual to play with fewer to no crowds. Currently it's only possible on newer 2Ks but unsure how to disable completely in 2K14 and older just like in Practice Mode (low crowd setting doesn't help as flat crowds were still there) when 2K mobiles could despite being a stripped-down 2K14.
In one search here, someone recommends to backup and delete crowd.iff file, however the game crashed right after loading and before the match started.