The last time the Trail Blazers and Lakers met in Los Angeles, the city and the league were still in mourning after a helicopter crash took the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others. Thousands congregated in and around Staples Centers to pay their respects to one of the city’s most beloved icons. When the game was finally played in front of a packed house, the Trail Blazers managed to come away with with a 127-119 victory, thanks in large part to a 48-point performance from Damian Lillard. Roughly 11 month later, things look markedly different. The memorials that filled LA Live, the area adjacent to Staples Center, and the thousands of mourners, are gone. In fact, for the most part, the streets of one of world’s capitals are mostly empty as the city struggles to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. And when they Trail Blazers and Lakers meet Monday night in a rematch of the first round of the 2020 Western Conference playoffs, they’ll do so in front of a sparse collection of coaches, staff and arena workers rather than a capacity crowd.