Pain still lingers in his mildly sprained right ankle and even the fracture and bone bruise in his left knee that sidelined him for 16 games.

Those ailments, coupled with frustration stemmed from the Lakers’ 107-95 loss Friday to the Dallas Mavericks at Staples Center, still did not sour Young’s optimism that he will suit up Sunday against the Clippers in a designated road game at the same arena,

“I hope so,” Young said, who plans to receive treatment on Saturday on his ankle and knee. “We’ll see.”

Young appeared to experience a scare after grabbing a defensive rebound and landing on his ankle awkwardly with 7:04 left in the fourth quarter. Shortly afterwards, Young limped to the locker room with Lakers trainer Gary Vitti. But after getting taped, Young returned to the bench three minutes later.

Young, who scored 14 points on 5 of 8 shooting, did not reappear in the game, but he kept his spirits enough to hide a laugh while holding up a towel. It turns out Young’s jovial personality has also covered up the pain he has felt in his left knee, a development that has kept the Lakers’ training room way too busy. The Lakers already have injuries to Kobe Bryant (fractured left knee), Pau Gasol (vertigo), Xavier Henry (bone bruise in right knee, torn ligament in left wrist), Chris Kaman (strained right calf) and Jordan Farmar (strained right groin).

“It’s tough. It’s been like this all season. Everybody is getting hurt. It’s just tough,” Young said. “You want to end the season on a good note. We only have six games left. I think we’re all trying to manage. A lot of people are hurt. We’re just trying to play through everything.”

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter and on Facebook. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com